Internet fueling growth of used book sales

Used book sales topped $2.2 billion and over 111 million books in 2004, thanks largely to booksellers operating on the Internet, a new study says.

"The real story is the dramatic growth of used trade books sold through online channels," said Jeff Hayes, Group Director at InfoTrends, which conducted the study for the Book Industry Study Group. "Used books are becoming mainstream as the Internet provides transparency into the industry inventory and consumers become more comfortable buying them."

Online sales of secondhand books totalled $609 million in 2004, a one-third increase over the previous year. The biggest online book dealers saw double-digit growth in all genres. Meanwhile, sales through traditional used bookstores were up approximately 4.5 percent in 2003, thanks mostly to increased sales of college textbooks at college stores, and sales in secondary markets such as thrift stores, book fairs, library sales, and yard sales were up only 1.5 percent.

"The growth reflects how easy is has become to sell used books and to create inventory in this business," Jeff Abraham, the executive director of the study group, told the New York Times.




New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)

The online used book market

More customers for used books. Millions of consumers are buying used books who would never have frequented a used bookstore.

Special orders produce just 1 percent of sales at brick-and-mortar bookstores, due to the inconvenient, time-consuming ordering process. For example, economics researchers from MIT ordered the same book at a Barnes & Noble superstore and through its online store, bn.com. The purchase at the brick-and-mortar store took nearly an hour to place, cost $37.45, and took eight days to arrive. By contrast, the online required just three minute to place, was delivered in three days, and was $5.46 cheaper. And don’t forget the travel time required in visiting a store, that took 21 minutes of round trip driving.

Internet customers now have easy access to more than 2.5 million unique titles, while the regular mall-sized bookstore carries just 20,000 and the chain superstores carry about 100,000 titles.

Selection is better online, and the better online stores such as Amazon use several “product recommenders” to advise customers on what additional books they might be interested in. Already, 55 percent of used book sales take place on the Internet. Internet sales account for just 9 percent of new book sales, although the share is growing.

The efficiency of buying online has increased overall demand for more obscure titles not usually stocked by brick-and-mortar retailers. A 12-percent boost in backlist sales is directed attributed to increased availability of these scarcer titles by small online vendors, according to the MIT researchers. They estimated that about a third of the volume of Internet book sales involved sales of those titles not normally carried by a typical mall bookstore. All of this bodes well for the online used bookseller.

On top of the price savings and convenience factor for buyers, bookstores are just a horrible place to try to find a book. They might be great for browsing, but there is no easier way of finding a specific title than typing it into a search box on your PC.




New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)






New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)

Selling books with no advertising costs

The online marketplaces established by Half.com and Amazon Marketplace for new and used books in the past few years have provided the perfect stepping stone for new business operators. Selling books on these established marketplace means there are no advertising or promotion costs -– in fact, no costs at all until you have a successful sale. You can begin on a part-time basis while gaining experience.

A mere decade ago it would have been impossible to establish a viable used bookselling business without several months of preparation, the capital required to obtain a suitable store location, the commitment to keep the doors open for long hours each week, and at least 10,000 to 25,000 salable books. Today, the part-timer can begin selling with a few discarded books while having a worldwide market of registered, ready buyers.

On a highly populated marketplace like Amazon, the micro-bookseller can instantly participate in the largest bookstore ever assembled, and one that benefits from the addition of several thousand new customers each day. How successful you become and how much money you earn depends only on how much effort you put into the enter-prise and how seriously you take it.

There are all sorts of other good and noble reasons for getting into bookselling. But here we are primarily concerned with building a thriving, efficient business. Everybody will come away a winner if you understand you are providing a service that your customers want.

I started selling books on the Internet in early 2000 after hearing about the Web site Half.com. Having never sold anything on the Internet, I began my business as a small experiment, selling books off my shelf that I no longer wanted. I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently the sales rolled in. With each e-mail notifying me of a new sale, I got an a rush of excitement and sense of accomplishment.

I plunged ahead further, taking $80 from my meager checking account, using it to buy four boxes of books from a local used bookstore. Within a few days, I had already turned a profit and was off looking for more inventory. Within a few months, I realized that I was making more money selling used books part-time than I was making at my “day job.”

Just five years later, I’ve sold more than $1 million of books to more than 80,000 customers around the world. With the money I’ve earned from selling used books online, I’ve moved from a cramped apartment to a big house in the suburbs. All this from that initial investment of $80, and without having any employees. And all the while, it’s been the most rewarding experience, like a daily treasure hunt.




New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)

A big opportunity: Selling books online

Online bookselling is one of the greatest opportunities available today for persons wanting to establish their own small business. Personal computers and the Internet are revolutionizing the used book selling and the opportunities are vast. Selling used books online is perhaps today’s greatest example of how anyone in the United States who is willing to work hard can build a substantial, moneymaking business.
It is not necessary for the beginner to have expertise in computers, selling, or even a great knowledge of books. The only requirements are average intelligence, a commitment to learning the business, and serving customers well. No significant capital is required since inventory is available at a very low cost through the various channels.

There are fewer experiences that are more rewarding than building a thriving, profitable business from scratch. And perhaps no other line of work is more highly thought of than bookselling. No line of work results in happier, grateful customers. Booksellers perform an immensely valuable service to our society. And used booksellers in particular help our communities by conserving natural resources, reducing the amount of waste going into landfills, and making books more affordable to people throughout our society.

It’s not necessary to have any sales experience to begin in online used bookselling. To begin you won’t need a shipping department or a warehouse or delivery truck. You can begin with the old books on your own bookshelf. In the old days, being big was good. It gave you economy of scale. The mantra of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos was “Getting Big Fast.” But being small gives you advantages too. Being small means you can attend to the details that customers appreciate. Being small means you can answer e-mails from you customers – real answers, not canned responses that fail to answer the question.

In short, if you work hard, as a one-person bookselling business, you can make better return on investment and have happier customers than practically any other company in the world. Since you won’t be able to delegate any work, you’ll need to focus your efforts on what provides the biggest return on your investment of time, effort and resources. This book will help you sharpen that focus and provide ideas for automating certain routine parts that will help you become more profitable.




New in paperback: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site (by Steve Weber)