Xu Zhiyuan and Viya on the livestreaming. [Photo by Wu Qi/provided to China Daily]

The novel coronavirus outbreak at the start of 2020 brought in drastic changes in all walks of life. For brick-and-mortar bookstores, which were already gasping for life with the advent of e-commerce, the epidemic came like a sudden hard blow, pushing them to the edge of survival.

Crippling blow

In the era of internet and online shopping, offline brick-and-mortar bookstores hold little hope of making more profits than online bookstores, thanks also to the often huge amounts they pay for renting their fancy premises.

For years, brick-and-mortar bookstores have survived because of the unique offline experience they offer readers: of choosing books to read or buy while also socializing in a public space. However, this advantage, for which costumers were willing to shell out more, suddenly took a back seat because of strict epidemic prevention and control measures－prescribing social distancing and prohibiting gatherings－that came into effect following the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The measures pressed a pause button for offline bookstores' normal functioning, upsetting cash flow to the low-margin businesses.

According to an online survey by China brick-and-mortar bookstore alliance Shumeng, 926 of the 1,021 offline bookstores, which are mostly medium and small-sized independent brick-and-mortar bookstores, had suspended their business by Feb 5. More than 99 percent of the brick-and-mortar bookstores have almost no income these days, and most of them remain pessimistic about the future.