The rise of online retailers and ebooks have had a devastating impact on the UK’s independent bookshops. According to the Booksellers Association, the number of bricks and mortar stores has plummeted over the last 10 years from 1,535 in 2005 to just 939 in 2014.

A number of online initiatives are now fighting back to save these physical outlets from further decline.

NearSt is one business aiming to help shoppers find their way back to local bookshops with a simple smartphone app. It allows users to tap in the product they want to purchase and then shows nearby stores where it is stocked. Similar to click and collect, the customer can then place an order and pick it up at that location. The business plans to take on Amazon’s new one-hour delivery service in London by introducing a similar option to customers in the next couple of months.

“Shopping locally should be easier than shopping online. At the minute it isn’t though,” says founder Nick Brackenbury. He says the problem is that a Google search will overwhelmingly list Amazon results first despite there being a very good chance there’s a bookshop within a few minutes walk either from home or along the commuter route. Those choices, however, are currently “invisible” to online shoppers.

Constraints on time and resources also mean independent booksellers struggle to launch their business online. Brackenbury says the NearSt tool allows these busy entrepreneurs to upload a “light” inventory online in just 15 minutes and keep that list up to date with minimal effort each week. Bookshops pay a small fee on each purchase made through the platform.

But does the app really have what it takes to compete with the reach, speed and price of online retail giants? Brackenbury claims he is helping to shine a light on the real strength of local bookshops which is the physical experience they offer shoppers – not their ability to deliver discounted bestsellers to your doorstep. The app has developed a new “discoverability” function that allows users to find out about events at their local book stores.

“The bookshops we have seen thriving and doing the best are the ones that aren’t just selling books, they are the ones going above and beyond,” says Brackenbury. “They are opening little cafes in the shops or providing evening events where an author may do a reading or host a book club.”

In attempt to entice shoppers away from bargain hunting frenzy of Black Friday, the Booksellers Association launched the Civilised Saturday initiative. Around 100 independent bookshops took part, offering promotions including prosecco, tea, cake and even massages.

One element which independent bookshops will never be able to compete on is price. Julie Howkins from Hive – an initiative which aims to support local booksellers – says many business owners refuse to go online because they don’t want to engage in a discount war with e-tailers and supermarkets that they simply can’t win.

Founded by book wholesaler Gardners in 2011, Hive gives a percentage of every sale made on its website back to its network of more than 300 independent retailers. Customers can either choose home delivery or pick it up at their local book store.

Projects such as Hive appeal to a very different demographic to those who typically shop with the industry’s biggest players. Their customers are motivated by social concerns rather than looking for the cheapest deal. Howkins, the site’s development manager, believes it is by tapping into that market online and showcasing the huge variety on offer to them at their local outlet that independent bookshops will survive.

“Hive is about introducing these people to new books, titles, authors and helping them to discover more,” she explains. “It is very much a market where people want to share and our customers are very vocal on social media.”

As shopping evolves in a digital age, why should we care if we lose those traditional retailers that fail to adapt? Because local bookshops do more than just sell books. They also work with local communities and schools to source relevant materials. Most importantly they play a vital role in pushing the cultural agenda in our society, claims novelist John Bennett.

Founder of Ooovre, an e-commerce platform that allows people to buy new books online from local shops using click and collect, Bennett believes it is essential that we find a way to save our independent booksellers – a group who have historically contributed to a broader, plural culture in Britain.

Bennett says the problem with the model that many online retailers propose is that it is based on the top 100 books that sell online. There is nothing else on offer, leading to a depressing homogeneity. A good local bookshop, however, will offer a much more diverse range of titles catering to a range of tastes.

He explains: “If there is no retail channel that offers this service, that puts pressure on the publishers because there is nowhere to sell their titles. What they see is the narrow slice that is presented, not the broader world that’s out there.”

The current version of Ooovre is only a prototype and the company is trying to crowdsource £30,000 on Kickstarter to build a more fully-featured service to help local booksellers reach larger audiences online. Planned improvements include an order management system for booksellers, as well as allowing outlets to build their own profile page.

Bennett claims increasing independent booksellers’ digital footprint is only part of the jigsaw. Shops need to join together to take collective action and come up with an online business model that will give them the control they need to compete.

Patrick Neale, the owner of the independent Jaffé and Neale bookshop and cafe, and former president of the Booksellers Association, which launched a Books Are My Bag campaign in 2013, agrees. He says despite the local bookshop industry being perceived as “fuddy duddy”, most retailers do want to embrace new technology to keep people shopping locally. He therefore welcomes online initiatives which bring more customers into his Chipping Norton outlet, but believes independent bookshops are a victim of their own success.

“The whole point is that we are independent and don’t necessarily like collaborating. That makes it difficult to herd all the cats,” he says. “But we are getting a bit smarter about that. We want to collaborate and work together because that’s how we are going to survive rather than going it alone.”

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