Online bookstore Booktopia has reported sales growth of 28 per cent during the 2020 financial year, reach a record $165 million as customers increasingly want for physical books.

Throughout 2020 the bookseller shipped around 30,000 items daily, selling over 6.4 million books, with sales accelerating quickly in the second half of the financial year.

“The growth of online purchasing of physical books has been increasing steadily, year on year, for many years,” Booktopia founder and CEO Tony Nash said.

“The events of the last six months have now brought forward much of that future growth and we would expect many of the converts to be convinced that online purchases are their new preference.”

According to Nash the Australian book market is in the strongest position it has been for many years, with demand spiking across several categories as Australians isolate and prepare for a different kind of Christmas.

And Booktopia has spent the past year ensuring it has the inventory and distribution capacity to handle the spike in growth, having raised $20 million in capital to expand its inventory, picking and packing capacity at its Lidcome distribution centre in Sydney.

The upgraded DC can now hold handle receiving and sending out stock at a rate of 60,000 items per day, compared to the 30,000 that was possible before.

“The funding will allow us to accelerate our growth in a controlled and measured way by investing in our ability to deliver to Australian book consumers through automation, robotics and stock,” Nash said.

“This has been a proven high growth and predictable model for us for 16 years and we are not about to change. We know that’s what our customers want from us.”