Bookshop, the online book-buying platform designed to benefit independent bookstores, is now live.
Founded by Andy Hunter of Electric Literature, LitHub and Catapult, Bookshop is a B-corp and affiliate of the American Booksellers Association. The platform's plan is to build "a network of publishers, authors, bookstagrammers, celebrity book clubs, and other media sites to target socially-conscious online consumers who are not yet buying their books online through an indepndent bookstore," and keep them from going to Amazon.
Orders are fulfilled via Ingram, and Bookshop will contribute 10% of sales to a pool that will be distributed evenly to independent bookstores every six months. Individual stores can also become affiliates and earn a 25% commission on sales.
Although the service is up and running, it is still in beta, and several features, including preorders, backorders, a mobile-friendly checkout process, and e-book and audiobook services are still on the way. The company said it expects more than 100 bookstores to join the platform over the next few weeks.
At a session at Wi15, Hunter went into detail about many aspects of Bookshop. He said that the idea for Bookshop came about at Wi13, when an ABA board member asked him to look at IndieBound and see how it might be made more effective. That led to many discussions with the ABA and the realization that "there were some things the ABA can't do as a trade association," and "the only way this would work if it were set up as a separate company."
Concerning its B-corp structure, Hunter noted that Bookshop has only individual investors and "no corporate hedge fund." The company's bylaws don't allow it to be sold to Amazon or a large retailer. "The idea is to keep Bookshop part of the community from which it sprang," he said. To much laughter he added, "I just want you to know I'm not a budding Jeff Bezos, and if I was, I wouldn't be here right now."
Hunter emphasized that Amazon's percentage of BookScan sales has risen to 52% from 37% in four years and that e-commerce is growing 15% year over year; "Amazon is capturing a vast majority of sales." He called the two trends potentially "devastating" and said, "Indie bookstores need to participate in e-commerce to survive." He estimated that if indies capture "just 1% of the books Amazon is currently selling, that would be $36 million a year," which is Bookshop's sales goal for 2023.
He said that the New York Times and the New York Review of Books are "on board" and will link every book review and bestseller list title with Bookshop. "Most editorial staff" at magazines, newspapers and literary sites "would rather not link with Amazon," he added.
Because people who regularly buy online are accustomed to discounts, Bookshelf is discounting books on average 8%. Hunter explained that customers used to Amazon "will bounce away" if they see that titles are selling for full price: "By offering a small discount we aim to prevent this."
Hunter stressed to indie booksellers that Bookshop aims to capture customers "who are not in your channel."