A TOTAL of 72 brick-and-mortar bookstores in Beijing and three bookstores in Shanghai have settled in nicely on Meituan Dianping, China’s online food delivery platform, and launched a book “takeout” service to attract more customers and mitigate the effects of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

In about 30 minutes, Beijing resident Guo received his book from a deliveryman after he placed an order on the Meituan app.

It is the first order for the Rongke branch of Zhongshuge Bookstore since the chain bookstore brand closed all its stores Feb. 1.

The temporary closedown of Zhongshuge is not an individual case. Data showed that affected by the epidemic, about 80 percent of brick-and-mortar bookstores in Beijing have been closed.

According to a questionnaire conducted by the Beijing Institute of Culture Innovation and Communication, 48.4 percent of 248 responding bookstores said their cash flow would only last one to three months, while 27.4 percent said their cash flow would only last one month.

According to the Rongke branch of Zhongshuge Bookstore, its daily customer flow was about 3,000 on average in the same period last year. This year, due to the closure of the store and the lack of sales channels, its sales revenue plunged to zero in February.

Meanwhile, at the Guomao branch of Jianshe Bookstore, passenger flow also dropped by more than 80 percent during the epidemic.

To help bookstores resume business, Beijing authorities have coordinated with Meituan to provide an online selling platform and improve delivery times for bookstores.

The food delivery platform promised to exempt platform service fees and provide the operation with guidance and other forms of support for bookstores to help them speed up the transformation.

Meanwhile, Meituan also simplified the procedures for listing a bookstore on the platform. Now, it takes no more than one day for a bookstore to open an online store on the Meituan app.

Most brick-and-mortar bookstores in China have reopened to the public since early March, and passenger flow to Shanghai’s bookstores has recovered to around half of that before the outbreak.

However, it will still take time for business to return to normal. From Saturday, a total of 58 bookstores jointly launched a giant open-air book exhibition with special discounts to attract customers.

To survive the crisis, brick-and-mortar bookstores that once relied heavily on social gatherings are resorting to shift their markets and services from offline to online through new approaches including live streaming and online selling.

The Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore, with a history of 70 years, has also settled in Meituan Dianping and launched book takeout services to attract more customers and mitigate the effect of the outbreak.

Gu Bin, general manager of the bookstore, said it made sales of 56,600 yuan (US$8,000) on the first day of book takeout service. (Xinhua)