1. Ukrainian book trade project
16 January, 2007
Research initiated and supported by the International Renaissance Foundation, the Fund for Central and East European Book Project (Amsterdam) and the MATRA program of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2. Project background
The project «Book market research» is a part of the Ukrainian Book Project ( ).
The research was initiated by the International Renaissance and Fund for Central and East European Book Projects, Amsterdam. The research is funded by the MATRA program of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The research is effected by GfK Ukraine ( selected based on the results of the tender run in spring of 2006 involving five marketing companies.
The comprehensive research of the Ukrainian book market consists of the three parts and the following tasks:
To find out what share of Ukrainian population buys books, and what motives are behind these purchases;
To investigate books distribution channels;
To analyse differences among buyers by distribution channels and socio-demographic characteristics;
To study seasonal fluctuations on the book market;
To gather and analyse information about publishers, retailers and wholesalers, operating on the market of Ukraine.

3. 1
Method and sample

4. Method and sample Research type: Regular study “Omnibus”
Method: F2F interviews at respondent’s home
Sample size: interviews with respondents aged y. o. (people aged account for 62.1% of the total population of Ukraine and is the most active part of consumers)
Respondent
recruitment
method: Random route selection
Survey timing: First wave - From 12 till 27 September 2006;
Second wave – from 08 till 22 December 2006
Project manager: Tetiana Illiashenko
Tel.: (+044)

5. Book shoppers in Ukraine2
Book shoppers in Ukraine

6. Key findings: Book shoppers in Ukraine
Overall, the share of respondents (aged y.o.), who bought personally at least one book during the past 3 months did not change a lot and makes 41% (compared to 42% in the previous wave).
Simultaneously, the average number of books bought had decreased to 2.6 than compared to the first wave (3.3).. Such a decrease took place mainly because of the reducing the number of books bought at the age of years old.
Demographic characteristics of book buyers did not change:
Women keep on buying books more often than men: 47% of women bought at least 1 book, while a share of book buyers among men reached 33% only.
The share of book buyers among comparatively younger population aged years old amounted to 44%, while among people aged years old this indicator is 36%.
Accordingly, schoolchildren and students (46%) are the most frequent book shoppers. Working respondents buy books somewhat less often (43%). The smallest share of book buyers is observed among unemployed respondents — only 30%.
Respondents having children under 15 years old in the household also tend to buy books somewhat more often (47%) than those from childless households (35%).
Settlement size: the smallest share of book buyers is reported in the rural area (39%), while the average share of book buyers among urbanites reaches 41%. The differences in book shopping levels among cities of different sizes are not statistically significant.
Reasons for not buying books:
The most often stated reason remains ‘no need books/no interest in books’ — this reasons was mentioned by 46% of respondents (in comparison with 50% in the first wave) who have not bought books over the past 3 months. Interestingly, this share differs among the different age groups but not substantially. This reason was mentioned by 39% in the youngest category (15-19 years old) and 50% in the oldest age category (40-49 years old).
Lack of money is the second most frequently mentioned reason —overall, 18% (in the first wave - 19%) of respondents stated not being able to afford books, another 12% (in the first wave – 11%) said that the book they wanted to buy was too expensive.

7. Book shoppers in Ukraine
Share of book buyers: age
Share of book buyers 42 41
First
wave
Second
Share of book buyers: gender
Share of book buyers: employment
*Note: the group of ‚working‘ includes the following categories: self-employed and employed, and ‘not working’ includes: housewives, do not work temporarily and retired/on pension.
Note: there is no statistically significant differences in the groups by age, occupation and overall; also, no statistically significant differences among the appropriate groups of different waves were observed; there are differences at the level of 5% among the share of buyers by gender

8. Book shoppers in Ukraine: region and settlement type
Share of book buyers: types of settlements
Share of book buyers: regions
Note: North and Kiev go under one category due to their too small sample
Note: there are no statistically significant differences in the groups by regions and settlement type; also, no statistically differences between the appropriate groups of two waves were observed.

9. Average number of books bought over the past 3 months
How many books have you bought over the past 3 months?
% of book shoppers
Average number of books bought over the past 3 months
First wave
Second wave
Women
3,5*
2,8
Men
3,0*
2,3
Overall
3,3**
2,6
15-19 years old
3,4**
1,9
20-29 years old
3,5
2,7
30-39 years old
3,6
40-49 years old
3,2
2,4
50-59 years old
2,9
3,1
Note: statistically significant decrease was reported for average number of books bought by respondents (* - significance at the level of 10%; ** - significance at the level of 5%); there is a statistically significant difference in the average number of books bought among the youngest and oldest age group in the second wave
Note: no statistically significant differences in the appropriate groups were observed

10. Why haven’t you bought books over the past 3 months
Why haven’t you bought books over the past 3 months? % of respondents who haven’t bought books over the past 3 months
Main reasons for books non-purchase by age groups (second wave)
% of respondents in each age group
Note: no statistically significant differences in the appropriate groups among the waves were observed

11. What books Ukrainians buy3
What books Ukrainians buy

12. Key findings: Books bought by Ukrainians
As for the books bought by Ukrainians, the majority of shares variations among the first and the second waves of the research are not statistically significant. The overwhelming majority of respondents bought books for personal use only/for their family — 77% (in the first wave – 76%). Only 6% (in the first wave – 5%) bought books solely as a gift.
Types of books:
Ukrainians bought fiction most often — almost 40% (in the first wave – 39%) of book shoppers noted that the most recent book they bought belonged to this category. The share of fiction buyers is noticeably higher among comparatively older people — 53% for people at the age of years old comparatively to 32% of book shoppers among the respondents at the age of years old.
24% (compared to 22% in the first wave) of respondents bought academic and science books, another 5% (6% in the first wave) bought dictionaries and encyclopedias. The most active shoppers in this category of books are young people aged years old — 29% of respondents in this age group bought science books. It is worth mentioning that the share of young people who buys academic books has significantly reduced in comparison with the first wave where it amounted to 46%.
The share of respondents buying children’s book remains the same — 18% (in the first wave - 19%).
Books belonging to non-fiction (like popular science book, biographies, historic literature, cooking books, etc.) were bought by 13% of respondents (in the first wave - 14%). Language:
61% (in the first wave – 60%) of books bought by Ukrainians over the past 3 months were in Russian. The share of Ukrainian-language books amounted to 38%, another 1 % of books was published in another foreign language.
The share of Ukrainians who bought books in Russian during the period has essentially increased compared to the previous wave, from 49% to 62%. The share of only Ukrainian-language books buyers has essentially increased as well, from 26% to 37%. Accordingly, the share of those who bought books both in Ukrainian and Russian has significantly decreased from 26% to 2%.
Books bought in Ukrainian are for most part academic/science books (52% of respondents who recently bought book from this category stated it was in Ukrainian) and children’s books (51% of respondents, correspondingly). The share of poetry in Ukrainian/fiction books buyers has reduced from 35% to 30%

13. What book have you bought recently and whom it was for?76 80 79 74 19 14 17 21 5 4 6 0%
50%
100%
Men
Women 22 24 19 18 14 13 6 5 40 39 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
First wave
Encyclopedia/
dictionary/atlas
Other non-
fiction book**
Children's book
Academic/scie
nce book*
Fiction/ poetry
Second wave
Only for myself / my children
Only as a present for other people
For myself and others as a present
Note:* Excluding secondary schoolbooks
** The category includes popular science, historic literature, biographies, how-to books, cooking books, etc.
First wave
Second wave

14. Your most recently bought book: split by gender
First wave
Fiction/poetry
Children’s book
Other non-fiction book
Encyclopedia/ dictionary/atlas
Academic/science book
Second wave

15. Your most recently bought book: split by age
First
wave
Academic/science book
Fiction/poetry
Children’s book
Other non-fiction book
Encyclopedia/ dictionary/atlas
Secondwave
Note: no statistically significant differences in the appropriate groups among the waves were observed

16. Price of your most recently bought book
What was the price of your most recently bought book?
% of book shoppers
Average price of the most recently bought book
First wave
Second wave
Fiction
15,4 UAH
19,8 UAH **
Academic/ science book
17,3 UAH
23,5 UAH *
Children’s book
12,4 UAH
15,9 UAH
Other non-fiction book
24,1 UAH
20,9 UAH
Total
17,4 UAH
21,0 UAH **
Note: statistically significant increase was reported for the average price of books bought by respondents (* - significance at the level of 10%; ** - significance at the level of 5%)
Note: no statistically significant differences in the appropriate groups among the waves were observed

17. What language were books you bought?
What language did you buy books over the past 3 months?
% of book buyers
Distribution of total number of books bought by language, % of books (second wave)
Note: red arrows mark statistically significant differences among the groups of different waves at the level not less than 10%

18. Types of books: distribution by language
What language was your most recent book? 56 51 50 52 35 30 28 25 19 22 44 49 47 45 65 70 68 75 80 76 3 1 4 2 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
First wave
Second wave
Ukrainian
Russian
Other foreign language
Children’s book
Academic / science book
Fiction
Other non-fiction
Note:*Excluding secondary schoolbooks
** The category includes popular science, historic literature, biographies, how-to books, cooking books, etc.

19. Language of books: split by regions
What language was your most recent book in? 43 54 8 13 28 40 81 82 72 96 12 67 45 60 3 16 7 2 6 25 26 21 87 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
First wave
Second wave
Only Russian
Only Ukrainian
Both Russian and Ukrainian
North/Kiev
West *
Center
South
East *
Note:*There are statistically significant differences at the level of 5% in the appropriate group in comparison with the previous wave .

20. Information sources about books
Why did you buy your most recent book, what encouraged you to buy it?
The overwhelming majority of shoppers keep on looking for books themselves, or take their friends’ advice
Only 5% of respondents stated that they took advice of bookstore assistants
There is a growing - from 7% to 11% - of those who took into consideration any book review/top-list.
Note: no statistically significant differences in the appropriate groups among the waves were observed

21. Information sources about books: split by age (second wave)
Why did you buy your most recent book, what encouraged you to buy it

22. Can you always find a book you search for
Can you always find a book you search for? % of respondents who have bought books over the past 3 months
Note: no statistically significant differences in the groups among the waves were observed

23. Can you always find a book you search for: split by age (second wave) % of respondents who have bought books over the last 3 months *
Note: *there are statistically significant differences at the level of 5% among the oldest age group (they do not go shopping in order to buy a certain book) compared to the sample overall

24. 4
Books shopping places

25. Key findings: Books shopping places
In the second wave of the research there were changes made in the alternatives of questions regarding the shopping places for books. Alternatives such as bookstore, book supermarket and ordinary supermarket were replaced by one – bookstore or supermarket. Also, there was another alternative offered – book market, which became second most popular shopping place for books in the second wave, thus gaining some part of answers from alternatives ‘bookstore and street book stalls.
The most popular shopping places for books remain bookstores and supermarkets, where during the past 3 months 51% of respondents bought books. However, this indicator is lower in comparison with the previous wave of the research, where it reached almost 72%. It is mainly due to the changes in the formulation of answers’ alternatives. In bookstores and supermarkets they for the most part buy fiction, as well as science/academic books.
The second most popular place comes to be book market, where 31% of respondents bought books, and the third - street book stalls and other public places (metro, railway stations, etc.), where 22% of respondents bought books. The most often bought types of books on street stalls include fictions, while children’s books – less often.
There was a statistically insignificant drop, from 12% to 9%, in the share of respondents who bought books through book clubs, where they largely bought fiction or other types of books, not belonging to fiction.
3% of respondents stated that they bought books from a travel salesman, and another 2% of buyers ordered books directly from producers.
No significant differences in terms of the most often used books shopping places were observed by regions and settlement size.

26. Shopping place of the most recently bought books over the past 3 months?
The significant share decrease of those who buys books in a bookstore is explained by the following factor: in the second wave there were changes made in the alternatives of questions regarding the shopping places for books.
Note: * On a stall in the street, in a railway station, in a hospital, etc.
** In a book fair, ordered directly from the publisher, etc.

27. Shopping place: split by type of book
Where did you buy your most recent book?
Academic / science book
Encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas
Children’s book
Fiction
Other non-fiction
Note: * On a stall in the street, in a railway station, in a hospital, etc. ** In a book fair, ordered directly from the publisher, etc.
Note: statistically significant differences in the appropriate groups among the waves are rather related to the changes in the alternatives of answers to this question, and not to the tendencies as for the changes of book shopping places

28. Appendix І: Questionnaire

29. Questionnaire (1)
В1 How many books have you personally bought for yourself or for other people in the past three months? When we talk about books, we think of all book in any language, including children's and academic books, except for primary and secondary schoolbooks.
В2 Have you bought books for yourself and your family or as a gift for others in the past three months?
В3 Of the books you said you had bought personally in the past three months, how many were in Russian, Ukrainian, other (foreign) languages?
В4 What genre was your most recently bought book?
В5 What language was your most recently bought book?
В6 Please look at the list and tell us where you have bought books over the past three months? Please think of all books you have personally bought in the past three months.
В7 Where did you buy your most recent book?
В8 What was the approximate price of your most recently bought book?
В9 What were the reason to buy the recent book; what motivated you to purchase it?
В10 Can you always find a book you search for? In not, please estimated how often you enter a bookstore searching for a particular book or contents and cannot find such?

30. Questionnaire (2)
Questions for respondents who have not bought any books over the past three months:
В11 What was the reason you have not bought any books over the past three months? Were there any other reasons? If yes, which ones? (open-ended question)
В12 What could generally make you buy books, or buy them more often? (open-ended question)