FCBD18 Survey Results Show a Successful Event for Retailers
April 21, 2019
Free Comic Book Day 2018 was a successful day for most participating comic shops, as retailers aggressively marketed their stores and had a profitable business day, giving away over 5 million comics at 2,428 different locations during the annual first Saturday in May event.
The results of Diamond’s FCBD 2018 Retailer Survey showed increased sales and traffic for many stores, highlighted the creativity and effort retailers apply to the event, and provided positive feedback and suggestions.
Overall stats from this year include:
- Attendance of 1.5 million people
- 5.3 million comic books were ordered
- 2,428 participating store locations
- An estimated $5.0 Million in free publicity
According to Diamond's recently conducted FCBD 2018 Retailer Survey:
- Over 90% of retailers that responded rated the day as "Extremely Positive" or "Positive", which is similar to last year's results.
- 42% said that they had 500 customers or more with 20% saying they had more than 1000 people visit on FCBD, which is almost double the number from last year's event.
- 59% said that May 5th was their best sales day of the year.
- 11% of retailers surveyed said that they think 50% or more of all people in their store on FCBD were new customers. Most thought that 11-50% of customers were new to the store.
When the survey asked retailers to describe the creative ways in which they promoted FCBD, their responses reflected a wide range of inventive ways to spread the word including: social media campaigns, event cards, cosplayers, exclusive FCBD sales, creator signings, partnering with libraries and theaters, costume contests, and more.
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When asked to provide feedback about potential changes for next year’s FCBD, retailers offered a host of excellent suggestions, such as: ensuring the store stamp area is exactly the same size on all FCBD titles; clearer ratings on the front of all titles; developing higher profile advertising (such as in movie theaters prior to a comics-related film); reviewing the possibility of more all-ages FCBD content with publishers; less anthology/multiple story comics; more original content for titles; and much more.
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A quick reference to some of the survey results:
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