Comic retailer organization ComicsPRO has released the results of its first general retailer survey, sharing aggregated anonymous information on who retailers are, what they sell, and their challenges. The survey was conducted over six weeks ending in late January 2024.
Although the survey was conducted by ComicsPRO, two-thirds of the 356 respondents were not members; the survey was publicized by distributors, publishers, and others to reach a larger pool. “As a result of the high number of responses and the range of retailers who responded, we are confident that this survey presents a realistic snapshot of the industry as a whole,” Outreach Director and Vice-President of the Board of ComicsPRO Jenn Haines said of the results.
The results reported fell into four categories; we report them here verbatim.
Demographics
- Comic book stores tend to be small, family-owned, independent businesses. 88% of retailers work in their stores full-time. 81% of retailers have single storefronts and 30% of stores reported that they have no employees. Over one-third of retailers reported that they have children at home.
- The vast majority of comic store retailers identify as Caucasian and male. 10% of retailers identify as people of color. 11% of comic retailers identify as female or non-binary. 10% of retailers identify as LGBTQ+.
- 38% of comic shop retailers are between the ages of 30 and 49, while 47% are over the age of 50.
- Almost half the retailers surveyed (47%) have been in business 21 years or more.
Sales
- 54% of retailers reported gross sales of $300,000 or less in 2023, while 18% of retailers reported gross sales over $1M.
- Overall, sales were down in 2023. The majority of comic book stores (69%) reported lower gross sales in 2023 than in 2022. A bright spot, however, is that 22% of stores reported higher sales in 2023 than in 2022.
- When comparing 2023 sales to 2019 (pre-pandemic), fewer stores experienced a sales decline. 54% of comic book stores reported lower gross sales in 2023 than in 2019.
- Sales of new comics were down in 73% of comic shops in 2023 vs 2022, while graphic novel sales were down in 65% of comic shops, with a decline of between 1% and 50% reported.
Product Lines
- The three main products that comic stores sell are new comics, graphic novels, and back issue comics. On average, new comics account for 38% of stores’ sales, back issues account for 16% and graphic novels account for 18%.
- Diversification of products has become the norm. Most comic stores sell non-comics product.
- Over 80% sell toys
- Over 60% sell card games
- Over 50% sell board games and role-playing games.
- Other items mentioned by over a third of stores are stuffed animals, apparel, packaged food and drink, and prose books.
- The majority of sales occur inside retail stores. But stores are also looking for sales outside of their four walls. 31% of retailers sell directly to schools and libraries. 29% sell at comic conventions. 69% sell via mail order/online sales.
- Almost all stores (97% of respondents) offer comic subscription services at their stores. 57% of stores offer discounts on their new comics, while 39% of stores have a rewards program.
Operations
- Almost 80% of comic retailers operate using a point of sale system. The most common systems are ComicSuite/RMH, ComicHub, Square, and Shopify.
- 61% of stores spend money on advertising, with the majority of that expenditure happening on social media, especially Facebook.
- When asked to rank a variety of different factors that are important to the success of their businesses, retailers rated the shipping costs from distributors, and incentives such as returnability and extra discounts as most important.
- When asked to rank different issues that retailers feel impact their businesses in a negative manner, the overwhelming response was being required to place final orders on an issue #2 of a series before #1 has come out.
Haines summarized some key takeaways. “While it is clear that the majority of the comics industry is experiencing financial strain, retailers seem to agree that their experience of that struggle would be mitigated through more coherent and consistent product data, reduced shipping rates, a continuation of purchasing risks to be shared by the publisher, and the ability to gather effective sales data on issue #1 of a series before having to finalize order numbers for issue #2,” she said. “Retailers are compensating for these struggles by diversifying their product mix with toys and games, as well as diversifying their sales channels by selling at conventions, to schools and libraries, and online.”
ComicsPRO Board President Joe Murray noted long-term benefits of the survey, and thanked those that participated. “The success of this survey helps us establish a baseline to accurately track changes in comics retailing going forward,” he said. “While it didn’t reveal any simple solutions it highlighted the importance of diversity in both products stores carry to weather downturns and a need for diversity in staffing so different voices can help us reach wider and newer audiences. ComicsPRO thanks all the publishers, vendors, distributors, and retailers who boosted the bandwidth of the survey. We will all benefit from discussions of the results and will use it to focus ComicsPRO’s agenda on critical issues in the upcoming year.”
ComicsPRO conducted a survey on distribution issues last year (see “ComicsPRO Survey: Retailers Sound Off”).
Source: ICv2
