The 2025 Sales Survey Results Are In!

By Zoe Perzo - January 21, 2026

Thank you to everyone who answered this year’s sales survey! Here’s what we learned about your stores’ 2025 sales:

382 members responded to the 2025 sales survey.

Of our survey respondents, 73.3% said their 2025 sales were up from 2024. (15.4% said their stores had not been open long enough to accurately compare for 2024 and 2025.)

22% said sales were up 6%–10%
17% said sales were up 11%–20%
9.4% said sales were up 3%–5%
8.4% said sales were up 21%–30%

See the full pie chart below for a visual breakdown.

66.3% of survey respondents said their sales for the 2025 holiday season (typically Thanksgiving through the end of the year) were higher than those in 2024.

Of the stores who said their 2025 holiday sales were down from 2024, respondents largely attributed the decline to customers spending less due to economic concerns, as well as the rising price of books and delays in shipping.

As many of you know, these numbers don't tell the whole story. Last year was arguably the most challenging indie booksellers have faced as they dealt with rising costs, an uncertain economy, book bans, free speech harassment, holiday shipping supply chain issues, the labor shortage, tariffs, ICE raids in their communities, National Guard in their communities, and more.

In order to get a better view of how your store’s performance compares to your peers’ (and to help ABA get a good idea of our members’ overall performance and better advocate on your behalf), please remember to participate in ABACUS, ABA’s free annual financial benchmarking survey, in June.