JINAN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- For Zhang Xiuli, a bookstore manager in east China's Shandong Province, the past few months have been tough with business impacted by the novel coronavirus epidemic, but livestreaming kept its sales afloat.
"Selling books through livestreaming saved my store," Zhang said, "It was something I had never thought of before."
From early February to early June, Zhang had created nearly 200 livestreaming sessions. On the busiest day, she broadcast four sessions in a row, which was around eight hours in front of the camera.
Most of the customers came to the livestreaming sessions to buy novels, teaching reference books, or cooking guides, Zhang said, but many are asking about books on family education.
A diary, designed for parents and children to write together in dialogue form, became a huge hit among the audience.
"In the past, the sales of the diary book were very low, but recently I can sell over 400 of them in one evening," said Zhang.
The store earned over 200,000 yuan (28,093 U.S. dollars) each month, maintaining the same level of sales compared with last year.
Some bookstores in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, opted to sell their books, and relevant products, on food delivery platforms.
One and a half months after nine chain stores of Xinhua Bookstore moved their businesses onto these platforms, they receive around 200 orders daily.
The books are delivered to customers in as fast as half an hour just like takeaway food, according to Yang Ying, who works with the Shandong Xinhua Bookstore Group's Jinan branch.
The company has designed kraft paper and bookmarks to go with the books. "In this way, we want our customers to feel a sense of ceremony and warmth when opening these books," Yang said.
"The profit margin for the online takeaway books is low, but it serves as a way of advertising for the bookstores," she said. Enditem
