Page 18 - PN131 Demo

Popular Canada is not letting the pandemic slow down their exciting journey south. 加拿大大众奋勇南下， 不让疫情阻拦业务发展的新征程。 For over 25 years, Popular Canada has dominated Canada’s supplementary workbook market with more than 50% of the market share. In 2019, Popular Canada headed south, venturing into the American market. With a population almost 10 times that of Canada and the prevalence of homeschooling on top of public schools and private schools, the United States of America (USA) poses different challenges in the education workbook market as compared to Canada. The materials created by Popular Canada have to be applicable to the different school systems in each state, including homeschooling. Popular USA’s Workbooks After vigorous research and consultation, Popular USA created three series of workbooks: Complete Curriculum Success, Complete Math Success, and The Old Farmer’s Almanac: 365 Fun Days. Replicating our Canadian bestsellers, Complete Curriculum Success focuses on English, Mathematics, and Science, while Complete Math Success focuses on the Maths curriculum for every school grade. Meanwhile, The Old Farmer’s Almanac: 365 Fun Days workbooks are daily activity books designed to generate interest in young children to learn about various topics through fun activities. Establishing Our Footing in the USA In August 2019, Popular USA launched an e-commerce website that featured 14 workbooks. This was the first access point for Americans looking to purchase Popular USA products. In 2019, Costco USA signed on to take Popular USA products in 32 stores nationwide. Popular USA signed a magazine distribution agreement with COMAG, the sales and marketing division of American News Company (ANC). This put all Popular USA workbooks on magazine shelves across the country, giving them more visibility. Our workbooks were turned into “bookazines” through the application and replacement of their ISBNs with BIPAD numbers. Currently, 93% of our sales in the USA come from the “bookazine” market! Furthermore, we were able to secure accounts with Christian Book, Library Education Services, and Zulily, which cater to the homeschooling markets. Working with Ingram Content Group, one of the largest book distribution and sales teams in America, Popular USA moved our e-commerce distribution over to Ingram’s warehouse in May 2020 to allow for faster shipping times through our website. Online business grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more homeschooling parents searched for educational products online. In June 2020, we launched a digital campaign with IDL Inc, a Canadian digital agency that works with Popular Canada, to target parents in the USA with children in Grades 1 – 6. Continuing to Grow Sales in the USA Starting in January 2021, Popular USA will team up with Lyfe Marketing, a digital marketing agency based in Atlanta, Georgia, who will be taking over all of our social media accounts. They will help us grow our digital presence in the USA and build brand awareness, driving both in- store sales and online sales. Apart from COMAG and Ingram, we will work with Amazon to promote our brand and products to boost retail sales. Two new Old Farmer’s Almanac Books for Grades 1 and 2 were released in Oct 2020. As we grow in the USA, customer feedback will help us determine our future publishing plans for the market in private learning sectors in the USA. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected Popular USA’s push into the American market this year. For example, we had to cancel our participation in Book Expo America, one of the largest book tradeshows in North America. However, the pandemic has also created many new opportunities for Popular USA and we are excited to see where our journey will take us! 18 - popularnews 131 By Erin Wolf (Canada) 文:艾琳·沃夫(加拿大)