A reader selects collections of poems in a poetry themed bookstore in Shanghai, east China, on Dec. 28, 2019. The bookstore called Si'nan Books-Poetry Bookstore started business on Saturday. Photo:Xinhua

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many non-essential businesses to close, China's physical bookstores have been looking for ways to stay afloat. One of the latest experiments sees these stores ally themselves with online food delivery companies to deliver books.

A total of 30 physical bookstores under the Xinhua Media umbrella throughout 16 districts in East China's Shanghai Municipality began cooperating with ele.me, a Chinese online platform offering a variety of delivery services including food delivery, on Friday, while some bookstores in Shanghai plan to begin working with the similar platform Meituan-Dianping at the end of May, Ai Lijun, manager of a Shanghai Bookstore, told the Global Times on Monday.

Ai noted the coronavirus outbreak has caused huge losses for brick-and-mortar bookstores as customer numbers has dropped considerably. 

"The average passenger flow during weekdays can reach over 100 people per day, and the number can be higher to over 300 during weekends," Ai said.

Ai said the delivery services cover each district of Shanghai, and people who purchase books on the ele.me app can receive their books within an hour.

He added one of the biggest bestsellers lately have been books on health and coronaviruses. To this end, the bookstore has placed pandemic-related books in one particular section.

Chinese news site The Paper reported that searches for keywords related to books on ele.me have been on the rise since February, which inspired the idea of working with the service. Jiang Li, Xinhua Media's vice-general manager, said that the company conducted a lot of market research, and decided to sell different books to each district based on the major consumer trends there.

The delivery service does not only cover Shanghai, but also in many other cities throughout China including Beijing, Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province and Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Some stationery stores are also working with ele.me for to have online purchases delivered. 

In addition to delivery services, a lot of physical bookstores in China have also turned to livestreaming to save their business.

Ai said a small number of customers have taken to this new way of purchasing books on food delivery platforms since its implementation a week ago. He noted that they would also introduce the new model to more readers through a livestream on Thursday, World Book Day.