Will a recession hurt online booksellers?  Two interesting news bits in the business section of today’s New York Times.  The first is titled “Internet Sales in a Slump, Too” and stated online spending growth grew by 6% in the 3rd quarter of 2008 down from 13% from the same time last year.  Good that it is still growing but sales are slowing. 

 

The second bit of news was a chart showing the share of visitors for retail web sites and the growth in those visitors (not in sales).  Amazon was shown as having 10.8% share of visitors to retail websites up 6%.  The increased traffic can only be good for online booksellers.

 

My impression of the economy and how it relates to online bookselling is that it will have a neutral to slightly positive effect. 

 

The used book market on Amazon offers tremendous value to book buyers.  Cost conscious buyers can get great deals on books.  The increased traffic to Amazon can only help.  I have seen traffic statistics for eBay but I would guess that they may have an increase in traffic given that the items there are perceived to be a value.

 

Personally, my sales volume is up over last year but it is hard to compare because I recently added a lot of quality inventory that has sold well.  My average sales price is also up this month (to about $14.25 per sale).  My international orders are doing well and I am seeing good sales from all the marketplaces I sell on (Amazon, eBay, Alibris and Biblio).

 

Hopefully the upcoming holiday season will be robust for online booksellers.

Textbook Season Ending & Return Season Starting
There is almost never a case when I do not accept returns - most markets require you to accept them (see Amazon's A-Z policy). I keep my return policy simple. The only time I have not accepted a return is when a significant amount of time has passed between the purchase date and the return date or if the books condition is materially different from when I sold it (such as full of highlighting). Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the customer experience when I run a business from home and do not interact with the customers. Continue reading
Amazon Charge When Shipped (Amazon CWS)
What does CWS mean for us booksellers? Not much. You will not have your account credited until you ship a book. If you use The Art of Books or a similar inventory management system Amazon should be automatically updated when the book is shipped. There are a couple of downsides to Amazon's Charge When Shipped - you do not get to send your own confirmation email to the buyer and the buyer can still leave feedback on a canceled order. Continue reading
Is the Amazon Kindle bad for Online Booksellers
Sales of the Kindle are one thing but it remains to be seen if people are actually going to adapt to using it as their primary way to read - as we have seen with Amazon recenlty deleting Orwell titles there are several issues with the Kindle that will effect its popularity. Continue reading
Tags:Booksales and the economy,make money selling books,online booksales and the economy,online bookselling,selling books on amazon

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