A proportion of US customers are buying fewer books from Amazon as a result of its public row with Hachette over terms, a survey has found.



A questionnaire of over 5,300 people completed just three days ago on 19th July by the Codex Group, found that just over 39% of respondents said they were aware of the stand-off, according to Publishers Lunch.



Within that segment, 19% said they were buying fewer books from the online retailer as a consequence of the fracas, although 4.4% said they had increased their spending with Amazon.



In contrast, though, 39% of respondents overall said they had no opinion on the terms disagreement and 37.5% said their Amazon buying habits were unchanged.



Peter Hildick-Smith of the Codex Group said Amazon usually scores very highly with customers. “This is the first time we've measured consumer dissatisfaction with Amazon resulting in significant declines in purchase intent," Hildick-Smith said. "The key question now is whether book retailers and publishers will work to further increase that awareness and take advantage of book buyer willingness to switch to other book sources?"



Instead, customers said they were shopping at Barnes & Noble stores, independent booksellers, BN.com, used book stores and Costco in that order.



The Codex Group specialises in book audience research.