Independent Booksellers, Unite!

This recent article from Publishers Weekly got me to thinking...  Unfortunately, it's a sign of the times (and has been for years) for the independent booksellers.  If it's not one of the big brick-and-mortar chains that's beating them up it's Amazon with their deep discounts.  Why don't the independents come together and forge an uber-chain online that's bigger and badder than Amazon and the rest?

I'm not suggesting they change names or do anything else in the stores...this would be an online-only initiative.  While most independent stores have a website these days, it's tough to compete or get anywhere near the eyeballs of Amazon, for example.  But if they all came together and formed one consolidated website, call it SuperIndy.com, for lack of a better name, they'd do better as a group than they're able to individually.

SuperIndy.com would offer all the books Amazon does, of course, but with the added benefit of letting you pick up your order at your local SuperIndy.com member store.  That book isn't available at your preferred SuperIndy.com store?  Well here are a couple of other SuperIndy.com member stores that are only a few more miles away who happen to have it in stock.  The thousands of visitors any small store/chain might get online per month are now pooled with those from all the other independent stores across the country.  You get the picture.

Besides being the largest, there's another reason authors (and other partners like NPR) will often feature Amazon and Amazon alone for their online links: Ranking.  Rather than splitting their sales for an e-mail blast or other promotion across a variety of online accounts, most authors will tell you they want to see the needle move at the biggest online account, Amazon.  Everyone talks about being #1 at Amazon, not at xxxxxx.com.  If the independents could come together as I'm describing, perhaps they could create a new (or at least another viable) bestseller list that starts getting attention as well.

Comments

[Jesus]

I believe BookSense.com from the American Booksellers Association was designed to be just that. I don't think they had much success with it, though. AbeBooks.com comes closer to what you are proposing. It is true what you say. It seems that the gap between independents and the major sellers (Amazon and the chains) is growing wider every year with no change in sight.

[I just discovered your blog a few weeks ago, and I'm really enjoying it. Keep up the good work and also those great titles, specially those titles in Spanish language. Thanks.]

[Joe Wikert]

I'm familiar with BookSense but it really doesn't offer what I'm suggesting. BookSense looks like a very simple portal for indies. The last time I explored it I kept getting web page errors. Today, when I enter my own zip code it shows me a store in Duluth, MN, several hundred miles away! Even if they got the site working right it's still not the uber-site I'm describing. BookSense takes you to the indie's site while I think the indies should create a single site with a common look and feel. There should also be more cross-chain/store coordination on inventory. If store A doesn't have the book I want, but store B does and it's just a couple of miles away, tell me that so that I can get it there instead; you won't find that connectivity between the individual sites pointed to by BookSense today, or at least I certainly don't see it.

So rather than creating a place where customers can jump off to thousands of indie sites, I'm proposing they all come together to create one more powerful and consistent site that feeds off their inventory, specials, etc. It's probably nothing more than a wish since it would be pretty tough to get all these individual store owners to cooperate at this level.

[Paul]

Hi Joe,

I have also been an avid follower of your blog for a long time and you raise an interesting point.

There is always more strength in numbers - eBay is probably the best example of how a central marketplace can benefit all sellers.

I was wondering how close ILAB (http://www.ilab.org) came to your vision - while it doesn't incorporate modern editions, it does feature antique, rare and collectible books from international booksellers.

[Joe Wikert]

Hi Paul. I wasn't familiar with ilab.org till you pointed it out in your comment. It's a nice looking site and probably serves the market well. What I'm envisioning though would have a look and feel very similar to Amazon's, including many of the lesser noticed features that really help create a smooth customer experience. The goal should be to provide one consistent storefront, regardless of what brick-and-mortar shop you might ultimately get your products from. All the rating, recommendations, etc., services should be included. Discounts would need to be comparable and as noted earlier, a good cross-store inventory management capability needs to be built in; that alone would help it stand out above the others.

[Bruce from the Bookshop Blog]

Hi Joe,
Terrific idea and guess what, we're already doing it. We've started on a much smaller scale, currently only 11 members but have high hopes for the future. This is a very long term project and while we don't plan on competing with Amazon we do feel that we can build a nice stable business and provide above average service. Feel free to check us out at The World Book Market, www.worldbookmarket.com. The website is rather rudimentary for now and our full-on e-commerce shopping will be enabled in the next couple of weeks, still you can get a drift of what we are about.

[Bruce from the Bookshop Blog]

Just wanted to add after reading the last comment that again you're dead on about the combined cross-store database. We have this in place as we thought it was the most important piece. The bells and whistles will follow.

[Joe Wikert]

Hi Bruce. Thanks for the information. I just visited the site and it looks like a nice start. Right now the home page looks like a recruiting tool for stores, which makes sense at this stage. Before too long though you'll want to turn this into more of a storefront that's tailored for the book buyer, not the bookseller. I hope you'll update me/us as you add more functionality. It definitely looks promising.