Used and antiquarian booksellers first began using the Internet as a sales tool as early as the late 1980s, promoting their titles on the precursors of today's Internet book listing services. The rest of the market joined the fray in the mid-1990s. By then, the first wave set up their own Web sites to allow searching and browsing of their online catalogues, a technique now embraced by nearly half of secondhand booksellers. The next step in the evolution of Internet bookselling is underway today, as used and antiquarian dealers begin adding secure e-commerce capability to their sites.
Stores such as Portland, Ore., Powell's (www.powells.com), which launched its Web site in 1994 and added secure ordering in 1997, have been Internet powers for nearly five years. But within the last year, many dealers—including small, single-proprietor operations—have added shopping baskets and Buy-It-Now buttons to their Web sites.
Market research by Booksellersolutions.com, a San Francisco firm that builds and hosts Web sites for used book dealers, reveals that 40% of used/antiquarian booksellers it surveyed have their own Web sites, with 25% of those, or 10% of the total, offering secure shopping. Forty-five percent maintain a Web presence through home pages on the used book listing services—such as Abebooks.com, whose members can opt to use its secure ordering mechanism—while 5% are not on the Web at all.
There are approximately 8,000 used and antiquarian booksellers in the U.S., according to Book Hunter Press, which publishes The Used Book Lover's Guides, a series of regional directories, and has tracked the market since 1993.
Forrest Proper, owner of Joslin Hall Rare Books, Concord, Mass. (www.joslinhall.com), and chairman of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America's PR committee, reported that two-thirds of the 500 ABAA members (which typically specialize in higher-end books) are wired, at least with e-mail. About half have their own Web site and/or use the facilities of the ABAA site; the latter offers a secure ordering system that 200 members use.
Booksellersolutions.com offers e-commerce implementation as well as design services, hosting, database integration, search engines and administration tools to the many types of used, rare and antiquarian booksellers that are online. Forty-one percent of Booksellersolutions.com's 60 clients are open shops with regular hours, 24% are open by appointment only and 35% are mail-order and online-only dealers. Sixty-five percent specialize in certain kinds of used books, while 35% are generalists.
Strategies Vary
Typically, dealers view their Web site as one of many Internet distribution channels. Most post inventories on one or more listing services, while some employ auction sites (such as eBay), online marketplaces (Half.com), and third-party e-commerce sites (Alibris or Amazon.com). Book Hunter Press estimates that the average used/antiquarian bookseller lists 15% of its total inventory online, through all channels. Recently, the venerable New York City used bookstore the Strand added its "Eight Miles of Books" to Half.com's product mix. The store still maintains its own site at www.strandbooks.com, but according to Strand spokesperson Eddie Sutton, the Half.com deal is a "great way to expand our presence." In April, Portland powerhouse Powell's also began listing on Half.
Don Stine, owner of Antic Hay Books, Asbury Park, N.J. (www.antichay.com), generates 80% of revenues from the Web, excluding catalogue and private library sales. "We rely heavily on it," said Stine, who, like many booksellers, is now offering secure e-commerce. (Browsers can access Antic Hay Books's inventory through a link to abebooks.com.).
Joslin Hall's Web site allows searching and browsing and is linked to the ABAA's secure ordering system; the Internet accounts for 25% of sales. While Proper believes that the Web site generates some repeat traffic, he said most regular customers order via phone or e-mail after perusing the store's traditional mail-order catalogue.
Buckingham Books, Greencastle, Pa. (www.buckinghambooks.com), has had a Web site with secure e-commerce for a year. The store generates as much as 10% of sales from the site; 30% from Abebooks.com, Amazon.com and other online channels; and 60% from printed catalogues and antiquarian book shows, according to Nancy Anderson, who oversees the Web site.
Anderson said most customers call in their orders rather than use the site's e-commerce option. Many are older, serious book collectors who are uncomfortable using a credit card over the Web and like to know condition and availability before ordering. In addition, the sometimes high prices of antiquarian books—many are in the hundreds or thousands of dollars—means some shoppers feel better dealing with a live person.
Reluctance to order through e-commerce is not an issue for customers of Harper's Books (www.harpersbooks.com), in St. Paul, Minn., where at least 95% of orders are credit card purchases through secure e-commerce. Proprietor Harper Levine says 60% to 75% of Harper's Books' sales come from Web-related channels, with a solid 5% coming from Harpersbooks.com, launched in June 2000.
Second Story Books, Rockville, Md., participated in the beta test for the original used book listing service, Interloc, which later became the e-commerce site Alibris. It had its own Web site by the early 1990s. "We were there when it was embryonic," said owner Allen Stypeck, who also cohosts a radio show, The Book Guys. Today, the Internet is a full-time job for five employees; in addition to its own site (www.secondstorybooks.com), Second Story sells through several search services and on eBay, half.com and other sites. Stypeck said 20% to 25% of gross sales are attributable to Internet channels.
Mike Cuthbert, until recently Second Story's Internet sales director, estimated that 5% to 10% of those sales come through the Web site. The addition of a shopping basket (where items can be "held" until the online shopper checks out with a credit card) a year ago increased sales, said Cuthbert, although he believes a secure ordering system, which the site does not have, would increase traffic and orders further.
With 80,000 to 100,000 books online, Second Story is likely among the top 10 used booksellers in terms of online inventory (three out of four of Booksellersolutions.com clients have less than 10,000 books online). Still, that number represents just 8% to 10% of the two-store dealer's one million-title total. "Putting more on [the Web] would be nonsensical and uneconomical," Stypeck said, noting that online postings are limited to relatively uncommon titles.
Acorn Books (acornbook.com), San Francisco, has been online for 10 to 15 years, starting with an Interloc listing. It launched its own Web site three years ago and added secure ordering last year, when it retained Booksellersolutions.com. Store manager Rick Wilkinson estimated that Web sales consistently represent 30% or more of total sales; the store has more than 36,000 books online, of 75,000 (excluding paperbacks) in inventory.
Why the Web?
A proprietary Web presence helps used and antiquarian booksellers boost name recognition. "You're creating brand loyalty," explained Susan Siegel, Book Hunter Press copublisher. "It's a way to bring traffic to your store." A Web site can encourage repeat customers; browsers typically find a shop through a link from a listing service or other site, then come back if the dealer carries books they collect.
While booksellers have relied on third-party listing services such as Abebooks for the bulk of their online sales since the mid-1990s, they are sometimes hurt by changes in these independent companies' regulations and costs. And as is common in the world of e-commerce, these firms can disappear or change ownership. Many independent booksellers abandoned one of the leading listing services, Bibliofind.com, after it was purchased by and later folded into competitor Amazon.com. "There's a greater sense of control with your own site," Siegel said.
Dealers can easily manage pricing and promotions on their sites, such as holding a temporary 10%-off sale on all titles. They can also sell their books for the same price online as in their store or catalogue; on the listing services, customers can quickly compare many dealers' offerings, which has pushed prices down.
A proprietary Web site lends itself to greater sales per order—Booksellersolutions.com customers sell an average of two books per transaction—than a search service, where each sale is separate and multiple sales typically involve multiple dealers. On a dedicated site, customers can browse additional titles and save on shipping if they expand their purchase; since the Web site gives customers an overview of the bookseller's specialties, it often spurs them to call for titles that are not listed online but may be on the seller's shelves. "If [a title] doesn't come up on Abe, the transaction is usually over," Siegel said.
"[A Web site] is a more profitable way to sell books in the end, if you can get the traffic there," said Luke Lozier, Booksellersolutions.com founder and CEO.
Promotion Drives Traffic
Some booksellers reported as many as 100 to 300 hits a day to their site, including browsers and customers. That number should begin to increase as store visitors and catalogue recipients become aware of the Web site. "You can't just simply put the Web site up and sit back," said Proper. "You have to promote it." Most booksellers include their URL on business cards, receipts, invoices and catalogues. Proper reported a jump in traffic each time Joslin Hall includes its URL in its printed catalogue.
Booksellersolutions.com is starting to offer dealers an e-mail notification service, being tested now by San Francisco bookseller Bolerium, which automatically alerts customers when a book they want is in inventory. "Bolerium is using the want-list notification as a method of eliminating catalogues," said Lozier. "It's been really successful in terms of driving traffic."
Harpersbooks.com is linked to or promoted in all other channels where the store sells. Traffic comes to the site from Abebooks.com when customers click on Harper's home page link, for example, and from the search engine Google when they key in search terms such as "modern first editions" and "postcolonial literature." Other visitors are regular customers who see the site's URL on catalogues and invoices. Levine also maintains an e-mail list of 150 customers to whom he periodically sends a link to a Web page featuring new titles. That technique results in "a decent percentage of sales," he said.
Second Story Books mentions its URL in all its local television ads and print placements in antiquarian book journals. "It's a mantra," said Stypeck. The store cross-references its site in brochures, on The Book Guys radio show and Web site, and through links on the ABAA's and other organizations' sites.
Challenges Along the Way
Some book dealers find the prospect of a Web site daunting. Edwin d'Haens, Booksellersolutions.com's marketing and sales director, said the company's product development process over the last six months has focused on creating a package that is simple to explain and use. "We need to constantly make it as easy as possible so it will be a no-brainer for [booksellers] to use it," he said.
No matter how simple, a Web presence involves time and effort on the part of staffers, with some stores dedicating full-time people to the Web. "It's not the same business I got into 25 years ago," said Wilkerson of Acorn Books, where one to two employees spend nearly all their time answering e-mails each day, one or two work on wrapping and shipping and all store staffers do some Web-related work. "It's getting more like being a hamster in a cage. But it allows us to survive."
Some booksellers worry about the cost of setting up a Web site or adding e-commerce. "You can spend a lot of money, or you can not spend a lot of money," said Lozier, whose company's prices range from $500 to $5,000, with hosting fees starting at $39.99 a month. Its Quick Start program gives booksellers a fully functional site, including e-commerce, for $799. Most booksellers reported that sales from their Web sites easily covered the costs.
Dealers largely agree that a dedicated Web site is necessary in today's competitive used and antiquarian book market, in which consumers tend to shop by title rather than returning to specific sellers. "I thought I needed a stand-alone Web site to maintain an individual presence on the Web," Levine said, noting that he competes not only against other full-time booksellers but against hobbyists. "I don't think it's had a big impact [on sales], but I wasn't under any illusions that it would have a big impact. It's one of the overall pieces of the picture that I needed to complete to be taken seriously as a professional bookseller."
