AbeBooks runs an online marketplace that allows thousands of independent bookstores to sell their books online. The Victoria, B.C.-based company has enjoyed healthy growth in recent years, seeing $190 million worth of books sold through its site in 2007, up from $170 million in 2006.
With music and movies a recent venture for Alibris (primarily an online marketplace provider for independent booksellers), the company’s 30-percent increase in sales last year came almost entirely from books, says Brian Elliot, president and CEO. Other media, he says, “are still a single-digit percentage of our business … [but] we think multiple media will help bring back buyers to our sellers, and our partners increasingly agree—especially [in regard] to used and harder-to-find DVDs.”
SPECIAL REPORT: The Transforming Booksellers’ Landscape
AbeBooks runs an online marketplace that allows thousands of independent bookstores to sell their books online. The Victoria, B.C.-based company has enjoyed healthy growth in recent years, seeing $190 million worth of books sold through its site in 2007, up from $170 million in 2006.
With music and movies a recent venture for Alibris (primarily an online marketplace provider for independent booksellers), the company’s 30-percent increase in sales last year came almost entirely from books, says Brian Elliot, president and CEO. Other media, he says, “are still a single-digit percentage of our business … [but] we think multiple media will help bring back buyers to our sellers, and our partners increasingly agree—especially [in regard] to used and harder-to-find DVDs.”