Bookstore retailer Waterstones is set to open 10 new stores a year as younger consumers turn to reading, with demand being driven by social media trend, BookTok, and a desire to escape from screens.

Following the success of its store-in-a-store pilot in the John Lewis Oxford Street flagship, Waterstones plans to roll out a further two outlets in John Lewis’ stores in Bluewater and Manchester.

Trialling new store formats in convenient, high footfall locations, it will also add a further five outlets in Next stores, as well as targeting UK regions where it is less well known, including Northern Ireland and Scotland, for further openings.

A return to reading

“People have come back to reading and buying books in bookshops,” James Daunt, CEO of Waterstones, told The Guardian. The book retailer has evolved the offering of its 320-strong UK store estate, aiming to make its bookshops more “enjoyable.” It has experimented with adding cafés, as well as putting on events, including book reviews, to draw shoppers in.

Sales of printed fiction achieved record sales in 2024, surpassing the previous peak by £50 million, according to LoveReading, while Waterstones said its revenue is up +5% – although it estimates that 2.5% of this is due to pricing increases.

BookTok boom spikes demand among Gen Z bookworms

Social media has played a key part in the reading renaissance, with younger cohorts of consumers engaging with BookTok, where TikTok users review and recommend literature, or Bookstagram, a similar format on social platform, Instagram.

Nielsen’s data suggests that consumers inspired by BookTok accounted for 90million book purchases in the UK in 2023, with about 3% of all books purchased originally discovered via social platforms, such as TikTok and YouTube. Last year, BookToK become TikTok’s largest community, generating over 243billion views of the hashtag #booktok.

While BookTok and engagement on wider social platforms is helping drive demand, Gen Z shoppers are also using reading to escape from their screens.

With almost half (46%) of Gen Z actively trying to reduce their screen time and time spent online, Daunt explained that “they want to do something not staring at a screen and relatively inexpensive.”