Wholesale Book Dealers

Here locally we have a book store that is the biggest used book store in the state. I've watched and shopped from them over the years and have always been impressed with them. Although shopping there I always thought they would most assuredly go out of business like most other used book stores, especially since they don't sell online.

But after watching them over the years I have learned some valuable lessons that can be applied to online book selling to make my online business more valuable and help it make more money.

Some of these examples include:

• Go big! - Most used book stores cram themselves into a tiny hole in a strip mall or worse, and barely give enough room to navigate the shelves. Not having enough space cramps your customers, limits your inventory, and provides an untidy unprofessional atmosphere.
• Have enough money to obtain inventory - Speaking with the owner of this bookstore he has over $100,000 in book inventory and whenever I go in there is a section of the store where all the new books are coming in. They are always buying fresh inventory, and always will buy books that they know they can resell.
• Provide special deals for loyal customers - This used book store provides a free card you can have stamped every time you make a purchase. After you've bought $50 or $100 you get either $5 or $15 in in store credit. This not only provides return customers, ensures there trust, and is just another reason for the buyer to buy from you over the competition
• Provide a good atmosphere - This is harder to do online, but by providing a professionally built website along with the usual bookselling hubs makes a user more comfortable they can trust you and will come back to buy. They will even buy directly from your website which cuts out the middle man and makes more profit for you. The book store in our example provides a good atmosphere by having a large store, playing soft music and providing a section where kids can grab books and read, and also color, allowing the adults to browse and shop easier. They also provide comfortable chairs so people can relax and read.
• Have a wide selection - This is obvious, the wider your selection the larger the customer base you will reach.
• Geotarget - Our area is a highly Christian, highly LDS(mormon) community and the bookstore has provided a large selection of these books specializing in a target market general to the area. There is also a section for local books, and books on the area. You can do similar by researching niche books and finding the areas people will be looking for them. Also you can advertise through many online outlets with geotargeting which will target areas based on geography or demographic making for effective ad campaigns
• Advertise -My local book store advertises at least once weekly in the newspaper, and provides coupons and special promotions with this ad.  Advertising can take your business to the next level.

By following some simple examples from this used book store a book seller can learn better ways to sell online, and alternatively if your online business is also a brick and mortar bookstore, these are just a few things you can do to improve your sales offline.

Tags: brick and mortar book store, buy and sell books, improving online business, selling books online

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.