News & Opinions

Shane Gottwals
www.gottwalsbooks.com

A Tour of Bookstore Websites

I spent two days last week looking at 87 different bookstore websites. After doing all that, I came to a couple of conclusions: 1. my eyes hurt and 2. bookstores do a poor job with their websites.

Obviously, most of us don’t have the funds to hire a web developer. However, I saw layouts that weren’t centered, words misspelled, and images that were of poor quality. Many of the websites didn’t have pictures of their stores at all. Isn’t this essential? If you are a brick-and-mortar only, you must have a website that will lure people into the store. I saw a story in a magazine that stated that a website is a company’s key to get customers through the door.

I did see some great sites. The ones I like, in particular, chronicle the life of the store from its inception. There’s a store in Georgia (boundtobereadbooks.com) that has great images of all the work being done, a story about the original concept, and well-places text and pictures. Nightbird Books (nightbirdbooks.com) uses something as simple as flikr to put all their photos in one place, making the interface super easy. I got the idea to put a gazebo into our store from the people at Books Plus.

In particular, I like bookstore websites so that I can keep track on how others operate their stores. I want to make sure that I’m current with the trends, trying my best to make our stores “POP”. I could probably write a book about web development using the pros and cons from the sites I’ve seen. While I haven’t used many direct ideas from other stores over the years, scanning all the web pages really gives you a good understanding of what the bookstore world is accomplishing. There are many stores that have been around for 30+ years. There are stores that are local destinations, well-known for being the best place to hang around. There are stores on islands, stores in bedroom communities, and stores in some of the most expensive areas of the biggest cities. Some stores have been around for decades; I think of The Strand in New York, particularly.

Read more

Buyers and sellers have a complicated relationship, we sell and they buy which sounds simple but in Australia the buyer is protected by the Trade Practices Act 1974, yes it’s old but it still applies. There’s also the Sale of Goods Act and the Fair Trading Act and if there are problems and the buyer is not getting satisfaction from the seller there’s always an Ombudsman to complain to. The Trade Practices Act regulates areas such as:

* a system of fair trading, as opposed to misleading or deceptive conduct in the marketplace
* accurate and reliable information, as opposed to false and misleading information
* sales techniques – to ensure they are fair and not misleading or one-sided
* product standards for a wide variety of goods, together with information on those goods and their safety standards
* remedies for both retailers and consumers for breaches of the Fair Trading Act
* implied conditions and warranties that are available to the consumer
* the enforcement of a fair and equitable system in areas such as credit, lay-by sales, and so on.

With thanks to the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme for this information.

Basically, what this says is that the seller must give the buyer full disclosure of information and be totally fair and above board and ensure they honour any implied conditions and warranties associated with the product they’ve bought. Fabulous, now let’s apply that to online selling of pre-loved books.

A system of fair trading
This is a hard one but you have to give the appearance of having fair trading. Everything is in the seller’s court here as we have the ability to take the customer’s money and just run. In order to look fair we have to be open about everything. Have a guarantee that looks totally fair and above board. Have all of your policies documented on your website and make sure they are fair, both to you and to the customer.
Accurate and reliable information
This one is easy. Pre-loved books are often in less than perfect condition and it is incumbent upon the seller to describe the book ‘s faults accurately, if you don’t then the buyer has every right to return the book and expect a refund. When I’m buying pre-loved books through an online auction site or from a website I expect the book to look the same as the description. If the description says brand new or almost new then I’d expect to receive it with very little wear. Make sure the picture matches the description. I’ve seen some pictures showing a book with quite a lot of obvious damage and the description stating it is almost new and sometimes unopened despite being so old. The customer would have every right to return the book as there is a great deal of misinformation there, that description is quite misleading.

Read more

Yesterday I made my most accidental sale of all time. Someone had emailed me earlier in the week asking for bank details so they could pay for a book, the eBay id didn’t ring a bell but sometimes people ask so they know ahead of bidding/buying whether you bank with some obscure building society that doesn’t have a branch in their town. Some people just won’t do any banking on line and I don’t blame them. On-line financial transactions have a certain degree of risk. From my perspective providing a bsb and acct no. is safe as people can only deposit not withdraw, so I blithely send her my details.

A couple of days later in my acct appeared a deposit for $9.32 with an eBay user Id. An odd amount indeed. $9.45 or $9.95 I would get but not $9.32. I checked my sales just in case, nothing. I emailed the sender asking if they were sure they meant to pay me. I duly got a message back saying no it was someone else and could I transfer it back? Of course I thought with a sinking feeling. Here is the rub. My bank has a security measure whereby I have to add the recipient’s account as an authorised transferee then I have to obtain an SMS code to approve the transfer. This works really well if you have a mobile phone, I don’t have a mobile phone. I was using my daughter’s old phone just for this purpose but had a strong suspicioun I needed to pay something to keep it active. Or at least charge the battery. It’s been months since I have done either. No problem. I would just call in at a branch and deposit it over the counter. I read the email again to check her account information. She banks with an obscure building society that doesn’t have a branch in my town. Okay, I thought, I’ll see if I can ring the bank and get them to change the mobile number to an active one belonging to an offspring. How about a Money Order the erstwhile buyer suggested. Hmm I thought $5 to purchase a money order and a 60c stamp to post back $9.32. How about I sell you a book instead? I suggested. Okay that worked. I had one she wanted and I have packed it and posted it off. The $9.32 gets to stay in my account.

Read more