Coming next week from Albris: Alibris Introduces Complete Cataloging and Fulfillment Program for Independent Sellers of New and Used Books Book, music, and movie marketplace offers new service to help online booksellers to list and sell excess book inventory Alibris has launched a new book-fulfillment solution that provides sellers of new and used books with affordable cataloging and fulfillment services. Known as Alibris Distribution Services (ADS), the Alibris program helps booksellers turn inventory into cash. In its first year, ADS has succeeded among participating sellers, who have sent more than one million books through the program. ADS is a service for independent sellers in the United States who exceed their operations capacity, have more inventory than they’ll ever catalog, or want to liquidate large amounts of new and used books. ADS includes: · Broadest possible sales exposure. ADS books are listed on Alibris, Alibris U.K.,Alibris for Libraries, and business-partner sites such as Amazon sites, Barnes & Noble, Borders, eBay, and Half.com. · Consignment convenience. Books are shipped to the Alibris distribution center, where they are cataloged and warehoused until they are sold on behalf of participating sellers. · Affordable fees. As a consignment-based program, Alibris only charges $0.99 for accepted items and pays sellers 70% of the sales price when they are sold. · No hidden charges. There are no additional processing, fulfillment, storage, or seasonal fees. ADS also covers up to the full shipping cost of moving books from the seller to the Alibris distribution center, depending on shipment size and distance. · Market-based repricing. Alibris daily reprices books, according to current market conditions, keeping them competitively priced for sellers and appealing to customers. · Complete customer service. At no additional charge, ADS services all book buyers and process all returned items. “We think Alibris Distribution Services is a best-of-class solution for sellers with excess inventory,” said Brian Elliott, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alibris. “A wide variety of sellers have tried and incorporated the ADS program into their businesses.” Elliott also summarized the fulfillment service’s assets. “ADS is attractive to sellers because of its operational simplicity, affordable economics, and proven success in turning backlogged inventory into cash.” About Alibris
Alibris is the premier online marketplace for independent sellers of new and used books, music, and movies, as well as rare and out-of-print titles. Read more about us.
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4 Comments
We’ve been considering using ADS for excess inventory for several months now. What would really seal the deal would be hearing from a satisfied ADS user. I’ve asked around on various book forums with no response.
Without any editorializing this incomplete advert was posted!
Alibris was 1st founded by taking over Interloc.com/net
After taking over this Bookseller site they took book 1st only to the warehouse – that wasn’t successful – so they took the best of AZ [AZ now has their Fulfillment scheme.]
This was promoted by Alibirs actually over 1 year ago – I was surprised to hear them going down this road
This is NOT at all like AZ Fulfillment – Unless they changed since its inception. [What has changed was the $0.99 for accepted books] Alibris used to offer to pay you a per book acceptance fee.
[It appears even worst practices are copied from AZ.] IF a large load delivery to Nevada is free smaller loads Sellers pay for.
Most importantly – upon receipt books not deemed sellable are tossed – NOT RETURNED, nor are you informed of their titles.
After 1 to 2 Years the items are:
1. removed from Sale
2. Not returned
3. not datalist [list of your items are supplied
Upon hearing the full details from a Rep. I decided “slow” items were best sold by me as well as unwantables
THIS IS A ONE-WAY, ONE-SIDED, TIMED TRIP.
There is no guarentee the books will be destroyed – in all likelihood they will be “absorbed” by Alibris. Or resold into the market.
This article is as bad as wehn Fulfilled by AZ expected signees with only a skeleton plan and no DETAILS financial or otherwise.
Posting an in depth interview would have been nice – as if the Original Poster was applying for the program.
SOunds to me as if this is a win only for Alibris because IF they are the only decider of what will sell, how does the independent seller know what ‘percentage’ of what they are sending will be ’sellable’ according to Alibris. In other words, they get a whole lot of inventory, if they just want to hold onto it a year or two, and then they can sell it for whatever they deem profitable, while the ‘idependent’ seller loses stock they have been scouting, etc.
For instance, they have 500 or more books that are slow sellers. Alibris decides that only 100 of them are ’sellable,’ but they don’t return the other 400.
For the cost of shipping them bulk to Alibris, Alibris would get them into their private inventory, and who would know which books were that independent seller’s ‘excess’ stock.
They want the seller to unload books that might be valuable.
Or I got it all wrong???!
Hi everyone. I noticed your comments and thought I’d clear up some of the confusion about this program. We discard what we deem are unsaleable books for the same reason we offer this program to you: shelf space is precious. If we don’t think a book is sellable, then we’re not going to pay to store it. And neither should you. Though we don’t recommend it, there is an option to return uncataloged books for $0.10 a book if you’d like to sell them yourself. We’ll also keep track of what’s being kept from each batch you send to us, including when the kept books sell. Obviously, this program isn’t going to be right for you if the inventory you’re sending us is mostly slow sellers or “unwantables,” as you put it. We can look at a sample of your inventory for you and help determine if ADS is going to work for you before you sign up. If you have other specific questions, feel free to contact us at ADS@alibris.com.
Thanks,
Tim Garvey
Alibris Client Services