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Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

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Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#2
This is an interesting concept. Fulfillment is handled through wholesaler Ingram, which works if the book is in Ingram's catalogue, but not for titles gathering dust on the shelves or in a back room.

Also, my experience with shipping via Ingram is it's slower.

Certainly not an Amazon (books) killer, but it certainly gives an option to indie bookstores which can't bother with their own website.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#5
So this turns bookstores into super affiliates? Also while sharing a pool of secondary affiliate revenue.

I am a heavy user of Amazon's Abebooks. When I buy from there bookstores get 92% of the revenue, and bear the costs.

Surely a model like this for new books is better than bookstore.org model?

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#6
post #4

Cool concept, but the books I compared were 20-50% higher than Amazon, and they charge another $3.50 to ship in 7-10 days.

Haven't read the article but like what you say, I tried to get a book from waterstones, a UK bookshop on my high street. I don't mind paying 20% or 25% extra as I don't like amazon and I do want to support local bookshops but when they cost that much more and they don't have it in stock and can't tell me when they will get it in, I say screw you and go with amazon.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#7
post #4

Cool concept, but the books I compared were 20-50% higher than Amazon, and they charge another $3.50 to ship in 7-10 days.

Amazon typically sells books below MSRP, whereas it seems that Bookshop sells at MSRP (ie. the same price that you'd buy the book in a brick and mortar book store).

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#10
post #4

Cool concept, but the books I compared were 20-50% higher than Amazon, and they charge another $3.50 to ship in 7-10 days.

Haven't read the article but like what you say, I tried to get a book from waterstones, a UK bookshop on my high street. I don't mind paying 20% or 25% extra as I don't like amazon and I do want to support local bookshops but when they cost that much more and they don't have it in stock and can't tell me when they will get it in, I say screw you and go with amazon.

Actually, occasionally Waterstones is actually cheaper than Amazon :)
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