November 20 19:00
The number of bookstores in Russia over the past four years has decreased by 25.7% – to 4.1 thousand, while demand flows to marketplaces, Kontur.Focus told RIA Real Estate.
“The trend towards reduction of players in the book business has continued for at least the last four years. As of October 1, 2021, there were 5,575 bookstores in Russia, and in 2025 at the beginning of October there were 4,144 stores,” noted Kontur.Focus, adding that the decrease in annual terms was about 7%.
According to the service, bookstores in Russia they close 2.3 times more often than they open: from the beginning of October 2024 to the beginning of October 2025, 245 such retail outlets were registered, 561 stores were liquidated. Including in Moscow the number of closures exceeded the number of openings by 1.7 times, in St. Petersburg – 2.8 times.
Among the regions, the most bookstores are concentrated in Moscow (384), also leading are the Moscow Region (240), St. Petersburg (218), Krasnodar Territory (190) and the Sverdlovsk Region (162).
As Svetlana Zorina, president of the Association of Book Distributors, noted, marketplaces are attracting buyers’ attention. “The increase in sales there due to price dumping significantly reduces customer traffic and offline retail turnover. Bookstore costs regularly rise, profitability falls, which forces unprofitable stores to close,” she explained.
In addition, demand has shifted to electronic and audio books, noted Kontur.Focus analyst Veronika Skorokhodova.
