In August, more than 80% of visitors bought at least one book. Until 2015, that figure was less than 10%.
In August, for the first time in its 120-year history, Livraria Lello surpassed the milestone of 120,000 books sold in a single month, solidifying its position as the independent bookstore that sells the most books in the world. This record was set without a corresponding increase in the number of visitors: more than 80% of those who enter the bookstore now buy at least one book, and the average number of books purchased per customer has also increased.
This evolution is particularly striking when compared to the reality of the bookstore just over a decade ago. Until 2015, fewer than 10% of visitors bought a book. Today, that figure is over 80%. At the heart of this evolution is a business strategy that sought to reconcile foot traffic with a bookstore’s raison d’être: turning visitors into readers.
The ticket-voucher model is one of the clearest examples of this strategy. The admission fee is fully deductible toward the purchase of a book, turning visits into a driving force for the bookstore’s business. The scale achieved, in turn, makes it possible to invest in in-house publishing, expand the selection to include different languages, strengthen the team of booksellers, and continue to create new ways to bring very diverse audiences closer to reading.
“Our identity as a bookstore is non-negotiable, and in order to uphold it, we need a business model that makes it sustainable. It would be simpler and more financially advantageous to charge an admission fee and end our relationship with visitors there. We’ve chosen to use the volume of visitors to create scale for books,” says Aurora Pedro Pinto.
“This means selling about 4,000 copies a day, investing in publishing, and continuing to rely on an increasingly rare form of expertise: that of booksellers. But it also involves work that often goes unnoticed—work that begins at 6 a.m. with our logistics team and is essential for us to continue welcoming our visitors in the best possible way. Our mission and our business are not at odds with each other: the business must enable us to fulfill our mission,” adds the Livraria Lello’s CEO.
It was also with this in mind that Livraria Lello invested in expanding its space.
Opened in June, the new wing designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira not only quintupled the bookstore’s floor area but, above all, enhanced the visitor experience through a series of spaces that offer new ways to experience, explore, and engage with literature.
Each area represents different ways of engaging with books, from the POP Collection—which reimagines great classics for new generations and has been recognized by Graphis—to artist Ai Weiwei’s A4 installation, and the Manifesto Library, created in partnership with Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club. The new auditorium adds to this journey a space dedicated to reading, reflection, and conversation.
“When we decided to expand Livraria Lello, we didn’t simply want to welcome more people. We wanted to create more reasons for our visitors to discover, choose, and take books home with them. The initial results show that more visitors are buying books and that each buyer is purchasing more books. That is the kind of growth we are seeking,” adds Aurora Pedro Pinto.
“This is the path we want to continue following, reaffirming our position as the institution that exports the most Portuguese culture and literature. We account for about one-third of the books sold in Portugal by the country’s only Nobel laureate in literature, José Saramago,” as she concludes.
This same logic has been extending beyond the bookstore’s doors. At BABELL, a literary festival launched this year in Porto by the Livraria Lello Foundation, the concept was scaled up to the city level: purchasing a book at one of the participating bookstores served as admission to the festival’s program. For six days, the book became the festival’s currency, involving more than 50 bookstores and transforming the demand generated by a major cultural event into business for the city’s bookstore network.
Livraria Lello has also been expanding its own publishing activities. In 2026, it plans to publish more than 40 new titles, including new editions and the expansion of its collections into other languages, such as Korean and Mandarin.
In the year it celebrates its 120th anniversary, the milestone of 120,000 books sold in a single month reflects the evolution of a model that seeks to turn foot traffic into an economic force that benefits the book industry.
