Booksellers: Tax move no ‘silver bullet’
Booksellers are welcoming the introduction of GST on online purchases – but say shoppers still won’t see mainstream titles on shop shelves at the same price they might pay online.
GST will go on internet shopping purchases from overseas from October next year.
Announcing details of the new regime, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash said large foreign companies would be required to levy GST on all goods they shipped to New Zealanders valued at $1000 or less.
Nash said the move was expected to raise $112 million annually within three years, on the assumption that by then about three-quarters of goods people bought online would be from suppliers that complied.
Books are the fifth mostcommonly bought item online, behind flights, clothes, entertainment and hotel bookings, Nielsen data shows.
The number of books bought by New Zealanders on Book Depository, owned by Amazon, has reportedly increased 45 per cent in the last three years.
Booksellers NZ chief executive Lincoln Gould said Amazon, Book Depository and other largescale online bookshops could offer titles at a lower price point than independents, because of the volume they purchased.
Amazon had also used books as a loss-leader, he said, to get customers into its system.
Big-name titles in particular are cheaper online. This week you could get Jodi Picoult’s A Spark of Light at $28 from Mighty Ape, $29.99 from Whitcoulls (although it was part of a buy-oneget-one-half-price sale) or pay $13.66 from Book Depository.
Gould said while the GST move would not stop online sellers undercutting bricks-andmortar shops, it was a welcome development.
The GST component had been a 15 per cent handicap for booksellers before they even opened their doors. ‘‘It’s not a silver bullet but it will help quite significantly in terms of booksellers being able to compete.’’
Stella Chrysostomou opened bookshop Volume in Nelson nearly two years ago. She said it was not possible to compete with online suppliers on price.
‘‘We do different things to create difference.’’
Chrysostomou said the tax might prompt people to think about how they spent money.
‘‘When you’re buying something offshore at the moment there’s no tax being paid to the local economy.’’
Gould said: ‘‘Booksellers in New Zealand have been facing this for a while. They’ve developed other means of competing.’’
Independent shops would focus on providing what customers in their area were looking for, and curating their supply to cater for customer interests.
There was less price differentiation on books in specialist areas or from smaller presses, Chrysostomou said.
Some local titles are not so readily available from overseas retailers – Steph Matuku’s new book, Flight of the Fantail, $29.99 at Whitcoulls, was not listed on Amazon or Book Depository.