Watch Now: ABA Webinar on Using NPD BookScan Data to Increase Sales

A recent webinar hosted by the American Booksellers Association, which is now available on BookWeb, taught booksellers how they can use NPD BookScan, a database that provides the trade with important data on the U.S. book industry, to help curate their inventory and increase sales.

The August 23 webinar featured a presentation from David Walter, executive director of NPD Book at the NPD Group, who discussed what NPD BookScan is, how the NPD BookScan bestseller list is compiled, and how that list differs from other bestseller lists.

Aspects that distinguish the NPD BookScan list from other bestseller lists include:

• NPD BookScan covers about 85 percent of the U.S. trade market, which includes both independent bookstores and large corporations, and can check sales across different countries.
• NPD BookScan can provide information for sales in Designated Market Areas (DMAs) as well as the national U.S. market.
• NPD BookScan can provide booksellers with unit sales figures in addition to a title’s ranking.

Following Walter’s presentation, Margot Sage-El, owner of Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey, shared how she uses NPD BookScan in her store. When curating her inventory, Sage-El uses ABA’s Indie Next List to compile her initial order, she said, then cross-references her inventory with the NPD BookScan bestseller list to check for books she might have missed.

In addition, ABA helps connect booksellers with NPD BookScan, as detailed in the webinar; booksellers can reach out to ABA’s Pete Reynolds for more information.

Booksellers can visit the Learning on Demand page in ABA’s Education Curriculum to watch the full webinar and learn more about NPD BookScan.