Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com, writes:
In response to "Online Alliances: Deal With the Devil or Pact for Profits?" Kate Whouley's coverage of a discussion on the NEIBA listserv, I'd like to clear up a few misstatements of fact regarding BookSense.com.
BookSense.com is an e-commerce solution, developed by the American Booksellers Association for its members and launched in November 2000. (For a good overall understanding of BookSense.com, I would refer readers to Robert Gray's three-part series, published in Shelf Awareness last year, beginning on November 14.)
The key issues raised in the article are how BookSense.com handles fulfillment and how BookSense.com handles affiliates (in particular, authors).
Regarding Fulfillment:
All stores that participate in BookSense.com have the option to have orders filled directly from the wholesaler to the consumer. Such an order ships with the store's name on the box and packing list. In other words, the participation of the wholesaler is transparent to the consumer.
But even for stores that do elect to use wholesale fulfillment (which includes all but a handful of participants), only 10%-15% of orders ship from the wholesaler. The vast majority of orders are filled directly by the store, either as in-store pickups or shipments by the store to the customer. We feel that this multi-tiered approach to fulfillment--store and wholesaler fulfillment, shipments and in-store pickup--puts BookSense.com Web sites on an even, if not slightly better than even, footing with online competitors when it comes to fulfilling orders.
Further, participants in the BookSense.com program have the option of uploading inventory data (quantity, price, location in the store) twice a day. This presents the consumer with an "On Our Shelves Now" inventory status. The stores that participate in this program also have the option of placing their own inventory first in the fulfillment cascade. So if a title is in stock at the store, the store, not the wholesaler, has dibs on fulfillment.
Regarding Affiliates:
The BookSense.com project has two ways of attracting and serving affiliates:
1. Each BookSense.com participant has among its tools what we call a "local affiliate program." This program gives booksellers the ability to track sales originating at an affiliate Web site and then to compensate those affiliates accordingly. Approximately 100 of the 220 stores that participate in BookSense.com use the affiliate program, and those stores have relationships with a total 1,140 affiliates, generating well in excess of $100,000 in sales over the past few years.
Some booksellers have used this tool with great success. Notably, St. Helen's Bookshop, St. Helen's, Ore., has a relationship with Chuck Palahniuk's fan Web site to fulfill requests for signed copies of that author's works, and since 2002 the store has fulfilled requests for more than 3,000 units. Inkwood Books, Tampa, Fla., was the exclusive site for signed copies of American Soldier, the memoir by General Tommy Franks, fulfilling orders for more than 400 units.
2. For affiliates that do not link to an individual store, BookSense.com manages a "national affiliate program," encouraging Web sites that feature books or book-related content to link to www.BookSense.com, the program's hub site. But rather than link to the BookSense.com home page, many of the more than 2,000 national affiliates choose, wisely, to link to a specific title.
The purpose of our hub site is to aggregate and redistribute traffic to stores that participate in the Book Sense program. So when an affiliate Web site links to a specific title, rather than direct the consumer to a generic Book Sense page, we direct him or her to the product page of the desired book at his or her locally-owned, independent bookstore. This requires one (and only one) extra step for the consumer, which is to enter a zip code. Once we have the zip code, we send the consumer to the Web site of the BookSense.com store that is closest and display the product page for the book in question.
For example, if you were browsing books on the Paris Review's Web site, you might come across this title: Women Writers at Work. Click the "Order Now" button, and you'll be greeted with a message about shopping locally and asked for your zip code. From there, you go directly to the book in question at your local bookstore.
The national affiliate program, which is meant as a safety net to capture affiliates not participating in the local affiliate program, has generated just under $100,000 in sales (separate from the money generated by the local affiliate program) over the past four years--sales that would otherwise have been lost to independent bookstores.
Promoting the national affiliate program and encouraging authors and other purveyors of Web sites to participate is a larger job than the BookSense.com staff can do on its own. To that end, we developed a template letter for booksellers to use when making this request of authors and publishers. That letter can be viewed online.
The ABA has continually invested in BookSense.com, and over the years the product has grown in its scope, utility and success. While the Web sites are first and foremost marketing tools, participating stores have seen continual growth in online sales, with the largest percentage of growth occurring this past holiday season. (We attribute this recent growth to the vast improvements made to the BookSense.com search engine in winter 2006.)
That said, we know that there are myriad ways BookSense.com can improve, and we're always actively seeking feedback from our members. (We conduct both an annual users' group meeting at BEA, as well as an annual meeting of our BookSense.com Users Council, a group of volunteer booksellers that advise us on the future direction of the program.) I encourage you to suggest that any ABA member with questions, suggestions or thoughts about BookSense.com contact me directly at len@booksense.com.
We look forward to the dialogue.
In response to "Online Alliances: Deal With the Devil or Pact for Profits?" Kate Whouley's coverage of a discussion on the NEIBA listserv, I'd like to clear up a few misstatements of fact regarding BookSense.com.
BookSense.com is an e-commerce solution, developed by the American Booksellers Association for its members and launched in November 2000. (For a good overall understanding of BookSense.com, I would refer readers to Robert Gray's three-part series, published in Shelf Awareness last year, beginning on November 14.)
The key issues raised in the article are how BookSense.com handles fulfillment and how BookSense.com handles affiliates (in particular, authors).
Regarding Fulfillment:
All stores that participate in BookSense.com have the option to have orders filled directly from the wholesaler to the consumer. Such an order ships with the store's name on the box and packing list. In other words, the participation of the wholesaler is transparent to the consumer.
But even for stores that do elect to use wholesale fulfillment (which includes all but a handful of participants), only 10%-15% of orders ship from the wholesaler. The vast majority of orders are filled directly by the store, either as in-store pickups or shipments by the store to the customer. We feel that this multi-tiered approach to fulfillment--store and wholesaler fulfillment, shipments and in-store pickup--puts BookSense.com Web sites on an even, if not slightly better than even, footing with online competitors when it comes to fulfilling orders.
Further, participants in the BookSense.com program have the option of uploading inventory data (quantity, price, location in the store) twice a day. This presents the consumer with an "On Our Shelves Now" inventory status. The stores that participate in this program also have the option of placing their own inventory first in the fulfillment cascade. So if a title is in stock at the store, the store, not the wholesaler, has dibs on fulfillment.
Regarding Affiliates:
The BookSense.com project has two ways of attracting and serving affiliates:
1. Each BookSense.com participant has among its tools what we call a "local affiliate program." This program gives booksellers the ability to track sales originating at an affiliate Web site and then to compensate those affiliates accordingly. Approximately 100 of the 220 stores that participate in BookSense.com use the affiliate program, and those stores have relationships with a total 1,140 affiliates, generating well in excess of $100,000 in sales over the past few years.
Some booksellers have used this tool with great success. Notably, St. Helen's Bookshop, St. Helen's, Ore., has a relationship with Chuck Palahniuk's fan Web site to fulfill requests for signed copies of that author's works, and since 2002 the store has fulfilled requests for more than 3,000 units. Inkwood Books, Tampa, Fla., was the exclusive site for signed copies of American Soldier, the memoir by General Tommy Franks, fulfilling orders for more than 400 units.
2. For affiliates that do not link to an individual store, BookSense.com manages a "national affiliate program," encouraging Web sites that feature books or book-related content to link to www.BookSense.com, the program's hub site. But rather than link to the BookSense.com home page, many of the more than 2,000 national affiliates choose, wisely, to link to a specific title.
The purpose of our hub site is to aggregate and redistribute traffic to stores that participate in the Book Sense program. So when an affiliate Web site links to a specific title, rather than direct the consumer to a generic Book Sense page, we direct him or her to the product page of the desired book at his or her locally-owned, independent bookstore. This requires one (and only one) extra step for the consumer, which is to enter a zip code. Once we have the zip code, we send the consumer to the Web site of the BookSense.com store that is closest and display the product page for the book in question.
For example, if you were browsing books on the Paris Review's Web site, you might come across this title: Women Writers at Work. Click the "Order Now" button, and you'll be greeted with a message about shopping locally and asked for your zip code. From there, you go directly to the book in question at your local bookstore.
The national affiliate program, which is meant as a safety net to capture affiliates not participating in the local affiliate program, has generated just under $100,000 in sales (separate from the money generated by the local affiliate program) over the past four years--sales that would otherwise have been lost to independent bookstores.
Promoting the national affiliate program and encouraging authors and other purveyors of Web sites to participate is a larger job than the BookSense.com staff can do on its own. To that end, we developed a template letter for booksellers to use when making this request of authors and publishers. That letter can be viewed online.
The ABA has continually invested in BookSense.com, and over the years the product has grown in its scope, utility and success. While the Web sites are first and foremost marketing tools, participating stores have seen continual growth in online sales, with the largest percentage of growth occurring this past holiday season. (We attribute this recent growth to the vast improvements made to the BookSense.com search engine in winter 2006.)
That said, we know that there are myriad ways BookSense.com can improve, and we're always actively seeking feedback from our members. (We conduct both an annual users' group meeting at BEA, as well as an annual meeting of our BookSense.com Users Council, a group of volunteer booksellers that advise us on the future direction of the program.) I encourage you to suggest that any ABA member with questions, suggestions or thoughts about BookSense.com contact me directly at len@booksense.com.
We look forward to the dialogue.