The world’s largest book retailer is opening its Web site to used booksellers.
Barnes & Noble is telephoning used bookshops and online sellers this week, asking them to sign up here and list their used books for sale alongside B&N;’s new book listings, similar to Amazon Marketplace.
[This post was updated with new information from Barnes & Noble at 2:45 p.m. on 6/14/2006. Please see the bold paragraph at the bottom.]
Clearly, B&N; wants to capture some of the used-book market from Amazon, which has built its Marketplace venue into a huge cash cow by signing up used bookstores and part-time sellers. Today nearly one in four Amazon shipments are from a Marketplace seller. Industrywide, sales of used books are growing at 11 percent annually while new-book sales are flat.
My hunch is this Barnes & Noble program will turn into the biggest opportunity for booksellers since Amazon rolled out its Marketplace platform nearly six years ago.
Sellers won’t be charged a monthly fee at B&N;, unlike Amazon’s $39.99 monthly fee for Pro-Merchants. B&N; will take a 15-percent commission on sales and deposit payments to seller bank accounts once every two weeks.
Here’s how third-party seller listings appear now. Here’s the Help Desk buyers see when ordering from third-party sellers.
It appears B&N; will closely police its third-party sellers, banning two common but controversial practices on Amazon: “penny selling” and “drop-shipping.”
Books can’t be listed for less than $1.99 on BN.com And prices can’t exceed Barnes & Noble’s price unless the book is signed by the author or is a first edition.
The prohibition on drop-shipping is clear. According to its list of seller policies, “sellers must be currently in possession of such listed inventory.” And, just in case that wasn’t clear enough, the document specifically outlaws the listing of “items that are in the possession of other suppliers.”
Like Amazon, BN.com prohibits the sale of promotional items including Advanced Reading Copies. Condition guidelines will be identical to Amazon and Half.com, including New, Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable.
So far B&N; has not done anything to publicize the program. The company didn’t respond when I asked for more information early Tuesday. However, I was able to complete an application online, which doesn’t obligate you to sell or pay fees.
Barnes & Noble already had a third-party seller program, known as BookQuest, but it’s been closed to new members for two years and the listings haven’t been promoted or highly visible on the B&N; Web site. Previously, members of Abebooks.com and Alibris.com could add their inventory to BookQuest.
Sellers will be able to upload their inventory via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) using Homebase or tab-delimited text files, which can be produced by Microsoft Excel and most inventory software.
Customers will pay $3.49 for standard shipping, and sellers will receive these shipping credits:
Standard Domestic: $2.30
Express Domestic: $5.05
Canadian: $6.35
International: $10.
Added 6/14/2006:
Barnes & Noble has asked me to emphasize that at this point, participation in this program is by invitation only. The program hasn’t been announced officially since some of the online tools sellers will be using are still being beta-tested. However, sellers who would like to be considered for the program can send e-mail to sellerrelations@bookquest.com and indicate their contact information, how long they’ve been selling books online, and how much inventory they have, etc. If the program is opened up for broader participation, B&N; will be looking for sellers with some experience selling used and out-of-print books online and a relatively sizeable volume of listings.
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3 Comments
B&N; was one of the Seller programs ABE offerred, and one of the 6 (or so) we use to participate in.
WARNING: it was also the first ones that we asked ABE to remove us from! The order fulfillment process was much more slow and cumbersome (required printing packing lists from a downloaded pdf, for example), but what really did it, was that customer inquiries about issues rose drastically and we began to suspect that the causes were more B&N; than us… of course, they off-load any effort and/or blame on to the Sellers… finally, we decided it was just not worth it to get those sales.
Of course, things can change and maybe they have learned their lessons… on the other hand, some corporate cultures continue to be clueless, even after major revamps…
Well, of course, Sellers must try it out if it looks good, just don’t be too surprised if the results are dissappointing.
Oh, yes, if I recall right, the shipping reimbursements and such (commission fees) were the worst of all the programs too.
I participate in the B&N; progrom through Alibris, and over 1/2 of my Alibris sales are B&N; purchases. I just signed up for their Amazon program because it was an easy way to get my inventory over there, and have noticed another boost in sales. I’m considering opting out of Alibris Amazon program and managing it myself later, but for now it’s easy. I wonder how B&N;’s program will change their business with Alibris, and if later it will be better to stay with Alibris or keep them separate? B&N; seems to be a big part of Alibris, just curious what they’re thinking….
FillZ, and online inventory and order management tool that helps sellers list their books and process orders across multiple markets, is looking for participants interested in listing on Barnes and Noble.
FillZ marketplace offering includes: Amazon, eBay, Half.com, Abebooks, Alibris and now Barnes and Noble.
FillZ is currently looking for sellers to help test their new B&N; integration. The first 3 sellers with invitations from B&N; that join FillZ will receive FillZ service for the first 3 months completely free.
Just email support@fillz.com or go to their site http://www.fillz.com
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