I went through and clicked on the about page. The books aren't sold through local book stores. It's a front for Ingram, which handles the orders. The local bookstores that sign up as affiliates get a percentage of the sale, basically as referrers.
I'd love to see this as a search-model that drives to the actual stores, but it seems that would be much more difficult to implement with arbitrary stocking information. In its current state the site represents itself as a method of shopping local, borrowing its respectability from the local stores.
You could even do it without custom barcodes, just with some geofencing or wifi identification. At worst, with a dedicated touchscreen device in-store.
Alas, i’ve repeated this idea everywhere for years and nobody in the industry seems to have latched on it yet, so maybe something I don’t know about the industry makes it unviable ️
Obviously you cannot stop people from going to Amazon anyway, but if you make it easy enough and convenient enough for customers to buy stuff right away (including ebooks, which currently are not sold in-stores at all), I think you have a good chance to compete.
In the Netherlands people who know the value of a good local bookshop tend to make an effort to support them and just go there, and many already deliver. The rest of the readers won't switch from the convenient and cheap bol.com (Dutch) or amazon.de (amazon.nl coming soon for physical products too).
True, but if you despise scalpers, how are you going to get an unavailable something?
This has worked very well for older books too. Prices are much better than amazon and you save a book from the landfill.
I haven't used amazon since a few years but when I was looking for a book, I ultimately had to order online. No option.
What would've been best is go to a store and they'll deliver ur book at your home in the evening if they don't have a copy handy
Till the happens stores will find it hard to compete with Amazon who does essentially that
The only time I've ever had to order from Amazon is when I'm trying to get something that just isn't distributed in the USA, or is only being sold by, in effect, scalpers. e.g., last year I got a box set shipped to me from Europe for ~70€, where US-based sellers wanted more like $300.
(Even there, I suppose I could order from Fnac or somewhere instead, but Amazon seems to fare better at getting through US customs.)
I look mostly in the scifi and history stacks.
As for my time, I enjoy picking through the stacks.
And examine books for mildew before buying. Though freezer + baking soda treatment does work.
I suspect not.
