According to Stuff, Whitcoulils says that they have sold thousands of Kobos and sold out their first two shipments. They are now taking pre-orders for the third shipment which is due in mid-July.
[Managing directore Peter Kalan said: ]”Demand has been great, it’s far exceeded what we expected .”
E-book sales through the Whitcoulls website have been building momentum, rather than kicking off with a bang.
“People get the device and tend to play around with it and down-load maybe one title or so and then a week or two later they’ll actually start to go on and buy. That’s been within our expectations.”
E-book sales are also in the thousands, and on average shoppers are buying one book at a time and spending $10 to $15. E-books tend to be cheaper than their print counterparts.
The most popular titles online tend to be the ones most sought after in Whitcoulls stores, Mr Kalan says. “The top sellers are Stieg Larsson’s (Millennium trilogy) series. I was surprised, I thought there might be a shift towards harder-to-find titles, but people tend to buy what’s popular.
“That may change as we start to build our library of New Zealand titles over time.”
Much more information about the New Zealand market in the article.
