Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

An alternative bookseller to Amazon - uk.bookshop.org

D'wards

D'wards

IT'S YOUR DECISION DANIEL
Let's all boycott Amazon for books and instead use this site.

uk.bookshop.org

Bookshop

uk.bookshop.org uk.bookshop.org

I'm not entirely sure of the business model but I think they sell books for local independent bookshops through their site. The bookshops definitely profit from it.
Plus they can have their own little "shopfronts" on the site with staff recommendation tables etc

The books cost about the same but they don't offer free postage so it works out a bit more expensive, but at least none of its going to That Cunt Bezos (TCB).

Who's with me?

www.theguardian.com

'This is revolutionary’: new online bookshop unites indies to rival Amazon

Bookshop.org, which launched in the US earlier this year, has accelerated UK plans and goes online this week in partnership with more than 130 shops
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Just been reading about this. I’ll be signing up today. Buying books online without using Amazon has become a massive pain in the arse. Hopefully brigading the indies together can help overcome that. I’m trusting this model isn’t explorative of the booksellers but also I’m just happy an alternative to Amazons grip might be established
 
I like the look of this.

I probably won't get much use out of it as I mostly buy 2nd hand or discounted direct from publishers but on the odd occasion I'm buying new at RRP (gifts?) I'll happily give this a go.
 
Have been using Hive whenever I can instead of Amazon but this seems to give 30% of RRP to bookshops rather than Hive’s 8-15% so yep I’m in.
 
As I mentioned on the more general Alternatives to Amazon thread, I've taken to just ordering direct from a handful of bookshops I prefer (basically, the ones I've visited :oops: :D ), but I guess this is a good way to get cash to those who maybe don't already have an online presence.
 
The social enterprise i help run in Pontypridd has signed up for this, early days but very helpful for a small bookshop that will never have massive stock or website with much reach. Very happy so far, sold books that we wouldn’t thought of stocking in a million years, creating lists is fun as well
 
I've used alibris and biblio for some years, which are both used by bookshops but are also dominated by some big warehouse players (or that's how they come across). Always good to have another option.
 
Lord Camomile said:
As I mentioned on the more general Alternatives to Amazon thread, I've taken to just ordering direct from a handful of bookshops I prefer (basically, the ones I've visited :oops: :D ), but I guess this is a good way to get cash to those who maybe don't already have an online presence.
Click to expand...

My local indie bookshop does me a discount (partly because I brute-forced him into setting up his business account, long story) so I order all my fiction there.

Business books all come off Ebay.

I'm seeing the bookshop guy this afternoon for "Last F2F Buy Before Lockdown" and I'll ask him about this.
 
I don't actually buy books very often, but when I do I buy them via Foyles and Waterstones. They are still independent, I think. Big, but not Amazon big.

That said, occasionally they haven't had what I've wanted when buying secondhand, and I've had to go via Abebooks despite knowing they're Amazon.

(The founder of Abebooks is a friend of my uncle. We met once when he was just setting up the business and he still wasn't sure whether selling books online would be a goer - he knew fuck all about the internet, so we chatted for ages about potential online buying habits in my generation - I was young at the time and all his older friends were saying nobody would buy secondhand books online. I doubt very much he made huge business decisions based on that conversation, but he did leave thinking it was more viable than before. Wish they'd been a publically trading company back then because I'd have bought a few shares just to support someone I vaguely knew).
 
Anyone recommend an alternative to the Kindle? I was considering the Kobo owned by Rautakin (sp) who also seem a bit shit - but at least I could buy from Ebooks.com/other sources and not be locked into Amazon.

I'm not sure I can ever fully go back to normal books unless they are smaller ones/political one which I do then tend to buy physical copies of.
 
scifisam said:
I don't actually buy books very often, but when I do I buy them via Foyles and Waterstones. They are still independent, I think. Big, but not Amazon big.

That said, occasionally they haven't had what I've wanted when buying secondhand, and I've had to go via Abebooks despite knowing they're Amazon.

(The founder of Abebooks is a friend of my uncle. We met once when he was just setting up the business and he still wasn't sure whether selling books online would be a goer - he knew fuck all about the internet, so we chatted for ages about potential online buying habits in my generation - I was young at the time and all his older friends were saying nobody would buy secondhand books online. I doubt very much he made huge business decisions based on that conversation, but he did leave thinking it was more viable than before. Wish they'd been a publically trading company back then because I'd have bought a few shares just to support someone I vaguely knew).
Click to expand...
you don't have to go to abebooks for reasons i have explained toward the top of the thread, often you'll be able to buy the book you desire from a bookseller on abebooks who is also a bookseller on other platforms, using one of those non-amazon platforms.
 
jannerboyuk said:
The social enterprise i help run in Pontypridd has signed up for this, early days but very helpful for a small bookshop that will never have massive stock or website with much reach. Very happy so far, sold books that we wouldn’t thought of stocking in a million years, creating lists is fun as well
Click to expand...
How does it work, then? I had a poke around it the other day and couldn't really work out whether I was ordering specifically from the shop that I chose, or from all of the indie shops' collective stock, or even from some other supplier service but that somehow gave the indie shop a fee for ... something?
 
They have partnered with the wholesaler gardners, so everything is fulfilled by them.

If you go to the site via a link from your fave bookshop then you get a cookie that recognises you as their customer, so all books you buy gives them a 30% commission, except when you click on a ‘list’ from someone else those purchases benefit the creator of that list, but all other purchases benefit that original bookshop.

Authors and book bloggers can be affiliates and their links yield 10% for them with the other 20% going into a big pot that is distributed to all affiliated indie bookshops.

For context gardners’ standard discount to bookshops is 40%, so for us 30% for someone else to fulfil an order makes sense, also bearing in mind that Gardners hold 800,000 titles, a few more than we can manage in our little shop.
 
jannerboyuk said:
If you go to the site via a link from your fave bookshop then you get a cookie that recognises you as their customer, so all books you buy gives them a 30% commission, except when you click on a ‘list’ from someone else those purchases benefit the creator of that list, but all other purchases benefit that original bookshop.
Click to expand...
Are you not worried that something like this will discourage people from actually coming to you direct (for those books you do actually stock)? So instead of getting 100% you're getting 30%, but people think they're still buying from you?
 
Buddy Bradley said:
Are you not worried that something like this will discourage people from actually coming to you direct (for those books you do actually stock)? So instead of getting 100% you're getting 30%, but people think they're still buying from you?
Click to expand...
Not currently, seems to be a different set of people, we’ve been getting orders all during welsh lockdown. Some people like the engagement, got asked for a recommendation today for example, some people like the convenience with ethics!

Also effectively we get 40% normally (33% for Welsh books) so 30% is good considering, it being the margin after cost.
 
My first book from them arrived today, all went very smoothly.

It won't stop me from going to bookshops, it's more of a problem for me to stay out of them. But sometimes I just need to order online, for example I'm quarantined ATM. Really glad to have this now, don't mind it being more expensive than Amazon because they're cunts and their false pricing is part of the problem for independent bookshops.
 
I’ve ordered two books today (first orders) from the site. So good to be a bake to easily avoid Amazon and it’s various guises!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
Hiding GB News on Amazon Prime?
Replies
4
Views
178
Throbbing Angel
Throbbing Angel
N
Amazon Prime keeps cutting out
Replies
3
Views
334
nightowl
N
K
Radical Booksellers +ebooks wanted
Replies
10
Views
342
danny la rouge
danny la rouge
D
Alan Moore does an 'other london' quintet-'Long London'
Replies
7
Views
446
Santino
S
Pickman's model
amazon tips thread
Replies
7
Views
473
Throbbing Angel
Throbbing Angel
Back
Top Bottom