Tag: Book Depot

Book Depot Turns Up the Volume!

August 9, 2018

Book Depot has some exciting news to share which will be very impactful to all our customers! Over the past year, we have seen a constant rise in inbound product and opportunities continue to present themselves for acquiring even more product. In order to keep up with the increased volume of product that is arriving at our warehouse daily, Book Depot has made the momentous decision to keep the lights on a bit longer and add a second full shift to our operation. The second shift started late in the spring of 2018 and has added 40-plus full-time jobs to our warehouse staff!

The Facts

So why is this exciting news for all of our customers? Please let me explain and provide you with some data. The second shift currently has one main purpose, and that is to work through our inbound books and get them into our inventory faster. Our sort machine is now running 16 hours per day and we have staff working to put the books onto our shelves for the same amount of time so that you have an even larger selection of books to purchase from.

Here are some interesting numbers that will help to substantiate this increase in volume.

In the first three months of 2018, Book Depot was adding an average of 269,000 books per week into inventory. That number of books represented 9,331 unique titles, of which 2,800 were titles that had no existing stock (either a sold-out title that we had reacquired stock on or a completely brand-new title that we had never carried previously). Those are already impressive numbers, but wait for the latest stats!

In the past eight weeks since we have implemented our second shift, we are now adding on average 411,000 books per week into inventory, which represents 12,580 unique titles, and of those individual titles, 4,080 are titles with no existing stock. That represents:

a 50% increase to our receiving capacity
a 35% increase in the number of titles added
a 45% increase to titles added that we have no existing inventory

So, what does all of this mean to you, our customers? There are actually a few areas that this increased volume will positively impact you.

Increased Purchasing Opportunities

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog entitled, Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. For all of you who are veteran bargain and remainder book buyers, you will understand this statement completely. The nature of our business is opportunity buying. Great titles become available at great prices and, as a buyer, you need to take advantage of those opportunities to help create the best assortment of bargain books that you can find. With the increase in our available product from our second shift, this will create even more of these great purchasing opportunities based on the additional number of titles we are adding on a daily basis.

Decreased Wait Times

For those of you who shop our New Arrivals often, you can see the pattern of the same publishers being sorted over and over again, almost by routine. The reason for this is because we have relationships with the publishers to take in their overstocks on a continual basis, so we might be getting a truckload from them every week or two. With the increase in our sort capacity, that will mean we will be able to get to these sorts sooner, which in turn means a shorter wait time before we sort your favorite or preferred publishers again.

More Books to Go Around

Another benefit we see from this increase in volume is that those desirable titles that sell out so quickly should either get restocked faster (if we get them again) and/or the quantity of those “hot” titles rise so more customers can “share the wealth.”

I hope you can see why Book Depot is excited for you, our customers, and the added opportunities that our second shift is creating for you. More product means more choices and better selection, which should also benefit your customers and/or institution. We continue to stand firmly behind our mission statement, which is that we want to save you time and money by offering the largest selection of high-margin books. This new change allows us to continue to improve upon that promise.

Rick Mechelse

Online Sales Manager

Book Depot

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What’s Hot, What’s Not at Book Depot

June 14, 2018

Bookstore owner: “For this buyers’ job, we need someone who is responsible.”
Applicant: “I’m the one you want. In my last job, every time there was a problem, they said I was responsible.”

Sound like someone you know? Have you ever been the “responsible” buyer for some duds? I’m quite sure we’ve all had our share of purchases that never materialized into profitable sales. Let’s admit it—it can be difficult to select all winners when we have a store or chain of stores to keep fully stocked with great titles that appeal to our customer base. This blog will hopefully help you a bit in discovering what’s hot and what’s not in the world of bargain books.

As one of North America’s largest purchasers of bargain books, Book Depot gets a huge selection of titles arriving every day. As a point of interest, we are now sorting 400 pallets of bargain books per week! Some of the product that finds its way into our inventory is like pure gold and sells out quickly. At the other end of the spectrum are books that have lost their relevance and salability. These will be quickly separated (often at the point of initial sortation) and recycled into various paper-based products. In between, where the bulk of our inventory falls, are good to great titles that you as a buyer need to sift through and decide what may or may not sell in your store(s).

Based on the last six months of sales at Book Depot and interviews with several of our seasoned sales reps, we have the following information you may find helpful:

What’s Hot:

Kids’ titles that have a STEM component (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)
Kids’ titles with a different format like sound books, lift-the-flap, and box sets
Fiction continues to sell very well, and in some cases, trade paper outsells hardcover due to the lower price point and less bulky format
Political books relating to recent events and certain individuals – any guesses on this one?
Inspirational and self-help titles, especially when linked to a well-known individual or celebrity
Brick-and-mortar stores do well with kids’ storybooks and board books that don’t necessarily need to be written by a big-name author, but instead, have a nice quality about them. Here is where the touch and feel experience makes all the difference
Adult colouring books, but a lower price point is key to successful sales
Cookbooks that are written by celebrities and/or deal with vegan and gluten-free content

What’s Not So Hot:

Generic cookbooks, especially those without rich, colourful content
Computer and Internet
Education
Sports and Recreation
Low-end paperback romance

In summary, content that is freely available on the internet tends not to sell well in printed form. Maybe it goes without saying, but high-quality content that is relevant (or timeless), priced well, entertaining, and worth sharing is going to find a customer and enrich their lives.

With over 50,000 current titles in stock, we have a huge selection of great books. Below is a special list of 35 top-selling titles at Book Depot, recommended by our sales staff, for your buying consideration:

ISBN	Title	Category	List Price (USD)	Our Price (USD)
9780062651754	Pharaoh (A Novel of Ancient Egypt)	Fiction	$19.99	$2.25
9781250045478	Victoria	Fiction	$16.99	$3.50
9780425280126	Island of Glass (Guardians Trilogy, Bk. 3)	Fiction	$17.00	$2.50
9780765377043	Children of the Fleet (Fleet School, Bk. 1)	Fiction	$25.99	$3.75
9781501124389	Everyone Brave is Forgiven	Fiction	$16.00	$2.25
9780684822761	In Our Time	Fiction	$14.00	$3.50
9781250075857	Mind Game (Eve Duncan)	Fiction	$27.99	$4.50
9781250119889	You Are Here: An Owner’s Manual for Dangerous Minds	Humor	$15.99	$2.50
9780062568892	Victoria: The Heart and Mind of a Young Queen	History & Geography	$29.99	$5.00
9781250080431	Pogue’s Basics: Life	House & Home	$19.99	$3.25
9781250087256	Obsessed! (Hungry Girl, Clean & Hungry)	Cooking, Food & Wine	$21.99	$4.50
9781250127761	The How Not to Die Cookbook	Cooking, Food & Wine	$29.99	$6.50
9780894803123	Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book	Cooking, Food & Wine	$10.95	$2.50
9780062409706	Nevertheless: A Memoir	Biography & Autobiography	$28.99	$3.25
9780312553685	I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love	Children Fiction	$17.99	$3.00
9780448437477	The Night Before First Grade	Children Fiction	$3.99	$1.00
9780451534040	The Crayons’ Book of Colors	Children Fiction	$8.99	$2.25
9781848698611	My Book of Animal Babies	Children Fiction	$8.95	$2.00
9781848698567	One Rainy Day	Children Fiction	$8.95	$2.00
9781474821483	Snowflakes and Sparkles Coloring Book with Crayons (Disney Frozen)	Children Fiction	$4.99	$1.00
9781474821490	Hopes and Heroes Coloring Book with Crayons (Disney Pixar)	Children Fiction	$4.99	$1.00
9781474821681	Dare to Dream Paint Palette Book (Disney Pixar)	Children Fiction	$7.99	$2.00
9781481492201	Daniel Tiger’s 5-Minute Stories (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood)	Children Fiction	$12.99	$2.75
9780689832130	Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type	Children Fiction	$17.99	$3.00
9780374300210	If Animals Kissed Good Night	Children Fiction	$7.99	$2.00
9781680520606	A New Toy Truck (Touch & Feel Busy Workshop)	Children Fiction	$12.99	$3.25
9781680520743	Brave Little Camper	Children Fiction	$12.99	$3.25
9781680520095	First Words Lift-a-Flap Book (Babies Love)	Children Fiction	$7.99	$2.00
9780544454361	Let’s Cook! (Sesame Street)	Children Nonfiction	$17.99	$1.50
9780312522827	First 100 Numbers	Children Nonfiction	$5.99	$1.50
9781250151070	Way of the Warrior Kid	Tweens Fiction	$13.99	$2.50
9780375870644	The Fourteenth Goldfish	Tweens Fiction	$16.99	$3.00
9781484789728	Disney Beauty and the Beast (Art of Coloring)	Crafts & Hobbies	$15.99	$2.00
9780892969982	The Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today	Religion & Spirituality	$14.99	$3.75
9781455517275	The Mind Connection	Religion & Spirituality	$24.00	$3.75

Bill Van Vliet
CIO
Book Depot

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Product Diversity – The Book Depot Anthem!

May 2, 2018

Diversity: the condition of having or being composed of differing elements; variety.

Diversity is a 21st-century buzzword. How diverse is our society? Would you consider yourself inclusive or exclusive? Do you have enough variety in your life or are you pretty much same old, same old? This word often pops up in discussions about race, religion, politics, or a variety of other social or economic issues.

At Book Depot, diversity in terms of product is something that we have striven for since day one. Offering a wide variety of products is what we feel separates us from most other bargain book suppliers. Whether it is fiction, children’s books (in just about every format), history, biography, crafts, cooking, health, business, religion—you pretty much name it, and we have it. Maybe it is because of our roots in retail many years ago when we had to fill a very large store with as many different books as possible, but we have the mindset that there should be “something for everyone.”

Fast forward some 25 years later and not much has changed. Our motto is “The Largest Selection Pays” and our mission statement (did you know we had one?) is “To save retailers time and money by offering the largest selection of high-margin books.” Having the largest selection of books is our goal, but married to that is the idea that the selection has to be made up of a diverse range of product. It is nice to say that you have 50,000 titles, but it is just as important to have a range of titles over many categories and genres. We want to be a one-stop shop for you and all of your bargain book needs. It doesn’t matter whether you are a specialty store or a full-range bookshop; everyone recognizes how crucial it is to have as much variety as possible to meet your customers’ needs.

Creating this diversity in product means a lot of hard work; relationships with many publishers and suppliers; lots of air miles and meetings around the globe; and leaving no stone unturned in the search for something new and exciting for our customers. We will take the risks to find the product we want you to be successful with. Every one may not be a home run, but Book Depot is a company that is not afraid to take a chance on something if we think it may benefit our customers. I remember 18 or so years ago when our owner came back to the booth very excited after acquiring 10,000 copies of Billy Graham’s autobiography. The conventional wisdom at the time was that Rev. Graham was likely nearing the end of life and this would be a good title to have in relatively short period of time. Needless to say, we sold all those copies long before we ever anticipated, but this is an example of the mindset we have always had at Book Depot—we take risks. A smart buyer once told me that you are not doing a good job as a buyer if you don’t make a mistake once in a while. Certainly, you don’t want to make more mistakes than your successes, but when bringing in product and trying to diversify to meet all your customers’ needs, you need to take some chances.

Book Depot is committed to being the most diversified supplier in the bargain book industry. However, to maintain this reputation, we need your help. We would like to get your feedback on items that you would like to see us consider for additional product offerings! We recognize the importance of good sidelines and the impact they can have in a bookstore, and maybe you have some suggestions for us? What additional items work well for you in-store, whether it is book, book-plus, or non-book product that we can investigate for you? We want to hear from you!

Rick Mechelse

Senior Sales Representative

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Book Depot Shopping Experience

February 14, 2018

In the heart of the Niagara Region—a place that is known for its beautiful vineyards, countryside, and of course Niagara Falls—sits the warehouse and home to Book Depot. At a sprawling 450,000 square feet, our building has a long history and likely many stories to tell, starting with its early days as a paper mill all the way to the major reconstruction it underwent to become the fully automated warehouse that it is today (Click here to read more about Book Depot’s origins). Featuring a sortation machine, miles of conveyors, and even robots to help manage the flow of product, it can seem like a complicated operation. As time shifts and the technologies do as well, however, I think there’s one thing that both wholesalers and retailers alike believe—that the physical presence of books is often best appreciated in person.

Technology has afforded buyers some pretty amazing options, such as the ability to simply scan through Excel spreadsheets and PDFs to purchase product for their stores. While these options have proved to be a great resource, the one experience they cannot provide is that of seeing the books in person. Some believe that certain books can be judged by their covers, and that their shelf appeal can be a great factor in their success. Book Depot has for many years opened our doors to wholesale customers from around the globe who, with this principle in mind, have come in the search of new titles.

Why Choose Book Depot?

In dealing with the industry’s leading publishers, our company has been able to amass a collection of almost 60,000 titles, which we’re proud to say leads the bargain book industry in terms of selection. To showcase this selection, we’re extending an invitation to our wholesale customers to come in and see some of the exciting changes we’ve made as a company, as well as shop in a clean, warm, organized, and friendly environment.

Our full inventory can be accessed by perusing the three levels of our main warehouse space, and entering titles into an order couldn’t be easier. We provide handheld scanners, which allow our customers to quickly scan a book’s ISBN to find out the quantity we have in stock, further details, as well as to add it to their order if desired.

As a second option, many of our customers will use our showroom, which generally features books that we have in a higher quantity. Often, this means we have 100+ copies available in our inventory. From within the showroom, you will have the comforts of a kitchenette, WIFI, lots of table space, carts to stack books on, and perhaps even some peace and quiet! At any given time, our showroom features up to 20,000 titles and is updated weekly to add new titles and remove those that have sold out.

Book Depot currently ships to 80+ countries around the world and we’re very proud to have hosted wholesale shoppers from many of them throughout the years. While we understand the challenges that travel presents, we work closely with visitors and receive preferred rates from some of the best hotels that Niagara has to offer. We are also happy to supply a letter of invitation to customers who may be originating from a country that has visitor visa requirements.

To both our long-term and new wholesale customers, you’re invited! We’d love to show you around Book Depot and provide what we consider one of the best shopping experiences you can find in this industry. For further information, please reach out and speak with your sales representative or our customer service team, who will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

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Customer Success Story: The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation

September 6, 2017

Customer: The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation

Business: Nonprofit Organization

Website: ellafitzgeraldfoundation.org

The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation is able to successfully sustain the “A Book Just for Me!” program through Book Depot’s unbeatable, low prices.

The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation

The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, established in 1993 by the late American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, assists at-risk and disadvantaged individuals and families in communities located predominantly in Los Angeles, California, and the surrounding area. One of the foundation’s aims is to help provide educational opportunities for children, which they do in part through their “A Book Just for Me!” book give-away program. The foundation supplies books to 100 nonprofit organizations each year through this program, which was created in memory of Fitzgerald following her passing in 1996. As of 2016, the foundation has given books to hundreds of thousands of children, ranging in age from birth through to college.

In order to keep the “A Book Just for Me!” program viable, the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation requires a dependable source for new, unread, low-cost book product that is suitable for a broad spectrum of ages and interests, as well as flexible, affordable shipping options to service all of the nonprofit organizations they are partnered with.

Solution

Book Depot’s large inventory of children’s and young adult titles provides the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation with the selection and quantities they want at the unbeatable, low prices they need to sustain the “A Book Just for Me!” program. Additionally, Book Depot’s ability to ship directly to the foundation’s nonprofit partners using the most economical shipping method for each location helps save the foundation time and money. While the foundation prefers to place their orders online via Book Depot’s comprehensive, user-friendly website, they are also partnered with a sales representative for personalized service.

Results

Since the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation first began purchasing from Book Depot just over 10 years ago in 2006, we have supplied them with 965,122 units to date at a fantastic average per-unit cost of $0.99 cents, which helps ensure that as many children as possible are able to receive books and benefit from this excellent program.

“There is just no way we could run this program without Book Depot and your amazing selection and even more amazing low prices. We are very, very grateful. (Plus, you are ALL so nice and helpful, what a pleasure!) And you ship wherever we want, which makes my job so much easier. Your website is a pleasure to use.” – Fran Morris-Rosman, Executive Director and Chief Literacy Officer

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Multicoloured book pages and paperback book covers.

10 Interesting Facts about the Book Publishing Industry

August 16, 2017

The book publishing industry has a history spanning several decades and many great continents. It is arguable that some may even consider books to be the greatest medium to deliver content in the history of mankind. With so many years behind the publishing industry, it would only make sense that some interesting things have happened along the way.

To pay homage to some of the strangest records, stats, and facts ever recorded in publishing history, we have created a Top 10 list about the book publishing industry for your entertainment. We hope you have fun reading some of the eyebrow-raising, jaw-dropping, and just outright crazy facts we were able to find out about this great industry!

Without further ado, enjoy!

10 Interesting Facts About the Book Publishing Industry

1. According to a survey conducted by The New York Times, 81% of Americans feel they have a book in them. But most haven’t written it.

2. The Bay Psalm Book was the first book to be published in British North America. This was in 1640, just a mere 136 years before the United States became a country and 267 years before Canada was formed.

3. One of 11 original copies of The Bay Psalm Book sold in 2013 for a whopping record of $14.2 million. (Little did they know they could have opened several bargain bookstores for that very same price.)

4. Without paper, we quite possibly would not have publishing! This great invention originated in ancient China during the years of 206 BC – 220 AD. Though that’s not a specific date or length of time, the e-readers certainly have a long ways to go to catch up.

5. Approximately 60% of English-language books are produced through the “Big Five” publishing houses. Book Depot is proud to say that we are currently distributing bargain books issued by all of them and a wide selection of many other notable publishing houses as well.

6. Now an asset to the book selling industry, bargain books have not always been in the picture. In 1986, Book Depot was formed and became a pioneer in this industry, which now distributes many millions of books each year. Can you imagine how much paper was shredded and wasted up to that point?!

7. Books actually come in all shapes and sizes! While we are accustomed to popular formats such as hardcover, softcover, board books, etc., there are some publishers who look to make their mark in a different way. In our warehouse we have seen books as small as a business card, as big as a television, and even ones that are shaped like a wine bottle!

8. Though there is little doubt, the best-selling book of all time is the Bible. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is estimated between the years of 1815 and 1975 that a whopping 5 billion copies were distributed!

9. The largest known book to have been published is titled The Little Prince and measured an incredible 6’7” high and 10’1” wide when open!

10. Founded in 1534, the Cambridge University Press is the oldest publishing house in the world. It’s incredible to think they have a 500th anniversary right around the corner!

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Row of books with remainder marks on pages.

Everything You Need to Know about Remainder Marks

July 12, 2017

“Is it necessary to mark your books?” “Why are the marks so big?” “Can they be a different color or shape?” “Why do you put that mark on your books?” These are just a few of the questions we regularly receive in regards to the infamous remainder marks that can be found on many publisher overstock books. At Book Depot, we are conscious of feedback from our partners and wanted to take a moment to help explain the process for these often misunderstood marks.

These marks serve a purpose in the publishing world, dictated and added by the publishers themselves. When a book first goes to the retail channel, the balance of unsold stock is returned to the publishers for credit. At that time the publisher marks each book to signify it has previously been through the retail channel. Without that designation, publishers would not be able to distinguish the proper life-cycle of their inventory, forcing them to treat all books as new.

So, ultimately, what do remainder marks mean to you?

In a nutshell, it means deeper discounts, a better sell-through rate, and higher retail margins for your store. Book Depot leverages its strong publisher relationships to garner a huge assortment of categories and titles, which we then make available to you for up to 90% off of the original retail price. Usually, the remainder mark is barely noticeable to the end consumer, and some books do not even have one at all. However, if your customers do ask, you can tell them it is there so they may purchase fantastic books at incredible prices.

To help illustrate our point, we have compiled an infographic to walk you through the remaindering process and why it is significant to your business.

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5 Essential Elements of Social Media Customer Service and Why You Need Them

May 18, 2017

If your business isn’t active on social media, it needs to be.

Seventy-four percent of consumers use social networks to help them make purchasing choices. This study of more than 23,000 online consumers who interact with companies via social media found that 67% of these interactions were for customer service reasons.

What can we conclude from this? Firstly, that the impression you leave on social media is crucial to influencing your customer to buy. Secondly, if people are seeking you out on social media, it is most likely for service rather than for an interest in your marketing.

So why do customers choose social media instead of the traditional phone call or email? Convenience is the answer. In today’s fast-paced society, consumers don’t want to waste their valuable time on hold to speak to customer service. Forty-two percent of customers who reach out through social media expect a response within 60 minutes. While social media hasn’t yet replaced the telephone or email, it is quickly becoming one of the main forums customers use.

Keeping this in mind, how can you best use social customer service to benefit your business? Here are some strategies for you to consider:

1. Consistently monitor your social media pages and respond to customer inquiries ASAP

Keep your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. pages open and refresh them as often as possible. Since customers expect a response within 60 minutes or less, you will want to check frequently for any inquiries or comments, as well as direct messages. You can keep most social customer service conversations public—customers who are leery of buying online or from your company will gain confidence that your brand can be trusted when they see proof of great customer service. Any inquiries that require follow up or that involve personal information (tracking numbers, payment information, or account details, to name a few possibilities) should be moved to direct message if it is available. If direct message is unavailable (for example, on Instagram), ask the customer to send the information to you through email and make sure that the proper follow up is provided. Be sure to post your hours of availability on your pages so that customers will not be frustrated if they reach out to you outside of business hours and need to wait for a response. You will also want to have a link to your website posted so that they can look there for more information.

2. Be proactive

Show your customers that you have an ear to the ground for their needs and that you truly care. It is one thing to respond to a customer, but finding customer issues and resolving them before the customer complains provides a high level of service. For example, you can search for your business name on Twitter and bring up conversations that are about you but aren’t directly tagging you. You may also Google search your business name and keywords to bring up relevant posts (i.e.: your business name + review). If you find positive comments or discussions, it is courteous to thank them for their words. If you find a situation that needs addressing, you are able to solve the problem and impress your customers with your thorough attention.

A different way of being proactive is by preventing customer complaints through social media in the first place. You can effectively reach your followers with important messages that may have an impact on your service. For example, you can tweet and post on Facebook that you are closing early due to inclement weather before the customer shows up and leaves upset. This kind of gesture changes the framework of the customer service conversation into a positive one rather than always doing damage control.

3. Make it personal

Although customers expect quick responses, they do not want to be given a cookie-cutter or thoughtless answer. When space permits, use the customer’s name and sign off with your own. (Note that initials are acceptable on Twitter due to character limits). Ensure that your responses match the tone of the person reaching out—it’s appropriate to be more casual with social media than you would in email.

4. Surprise and delight

Sometimes it is beneficial to go above and beyond good customer service when addressing concerns on social media. Many companies have had random acts of kindness for customers go viral—this is the kind of attention you want drawn to your brand. See the example here of what Lego did for a little boy who lost his toy. While it is not feasible to offer free product to everyone who asks, from time to time you may wish to do something special for your followers to see.

5. Know when to ignore someone or delete a post

Although you definitely want your customers to see you turning upset customers around, there are times when it is necessary to end the conversation before it starts. Social media is an excellent way to reach a lot of people, but this can backfire when your customers are exposed to posts or comments that are inappropriate or insulting. Be sure to delete posts or comments that are belligerent to other customers, use foul language, or are discriminatory in any way. These people likely cannot be turned around anyways and are using social media as a way to vent and spread negativity for their own enjoyment.

While it reflects poorly on the company to ignore posts directed at you, if you are socially sleuthing and come across someone that repeatedly complains despite multiple attempts on your end to make things right, you can let it go. Some customers will become more annoyed if you reach out to them too many times asking if you can assist them, especially if these are conversations that are going on in the background and not on your pages.

The more you reliably interact with customers socially, the more likely your other followers are to reach out in the same way. You will develop a rhythm and a style that works for you and helps you to address all inquiries efficiently and effectively— and your customers will trust your brand as one that offers comprehensive and conscientious social service.

Written by:

Jaimie VanAmerongen

Book Depot Marketing Team

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What’s New at Book Depot

February 22, 2017

Two years ago while visiting a prospective university with our oldest son, my wife and I found ourselves in a men’s clothing store that we had paid a visit to a couple years earlier while in the same town. I remembered having a good customer experience the first time and thought I would just pop in for a quick look. Sixty minutes later I walked out with a new suit, two shirts, some ties, and a few other accessories. The gentlemen helping us out was someone I felt comfortable with as he previously owned another men’s clothing store that I frequented close to our hometown. He was also very knowledgeable about his product and took away every barrier for me to buy. Even when I said, “Your store is 90 minutes away and I can’t drive back here next week to pick up the new suit after you alter it,” he said, “No problem, I’ll personally deliver it to your house as I live not too far away.” Wow, now that’s a customer experience, I thought!

Perhaps you have a story of your own that matches an experience like this, or maybe you’ve had an experience that was less than favorable and you would just like to forget it. It may even be possible that you’ve had a bad experience with us somewhere in our history together, and if so, please read on to get to the good stuff and find out why you should try us again.

What’s New

So what’s new at Book Depot? Over the last 6-7 years we have spent millions of dollars investing in our customer experience. It started with a major overhaul of our 450,000 square foot warehouse, as we retrofitted it with over one mile of conveyors to move product efficiently around the warehouse and ultimately out the door to our customers. The impact of this automation has been nothing short of dramatic for the customer experience—we have the best fill rate in the industry at 98.96% and also the fastest order turnaround time, with most orders being shipped in 3-4 business days.

In 1997 we launched the first bargain book B2B website, and today we have the most user-friendly website with the largest selection of bargain book titles anywhere in the world. When the site was redesigned over three years ago it was important that we made the site responsive so that all our customers, no matter the device they were shopping on, would have the same great experience. If you have not been on our website in the last three years, please take a look; I know you’ll be impressed with what you see and the ease with which you can shop for bargain books all from the convenience of your office (or wherever life takes you!) on your PC, smartphone, or tablet.

As I said in the opening part of this article, I was impacted by a particularly amazing team member of the men’s store I visited. I know that today we have the team at Book Depot that can provide that same amazing experience to you. Two years ago we invested in our sales and customer service team and held a two day intensive sales training with John Asher Sales Training. Today, our sales team has a combined experience in the book industry of over 80 years, and along with that comes a wealth of product knowledge. Maybe you’re someone who would rather not shop online—no problem. Give us a call at 1-800-801-7193, ext. 229 and ask to speak to a member of our sales team. Or perhaps you enjoy shopping the website but need some occasional help from a member of our customer service team. Give us a call and I guarantee you’ll be impressed with the level of service you will receive, as we have completely revamped our customer service department by adding new team members and training and empowering them to help our customers. Last year we continued our investment in the sales team with the launch of Salesforce, which will give our people even more tools to grow and maintain excellent customer relations.

As you can see, Book Depot continues to take the long-term view on the bargain book industry. We wouldn’t be investing millions of dollars in our company if we didn’t believe in the future of books or in the future of our company. Rather than taking out as much of the profits as possible, we continue to invest for the long term in order to deliver the best customer experience in the industry. I’m excited to say that we continue to push the limits of technology, and this past year has been no exception as we launched and completed one of our most exciting projects to date. New automated sortation equipment (watch video) enables us to sort more books, process them quicker, and assist us in providing you with an even better selection of titles. However, all the infrastructure and systems are worthless if we couldn’t offer you the quality product that we have. We have agreements in place so that shopping here gives you access to bargain books from all the major publishers and many smaller imprints. During the past two years we added some key new suppliers that have complemented our mix to the point where I am confident in saying that our selection has never been better in the nearly 32 years of being in this business.

Maybe you’ve just had a bad experience with bargain books. If that is the case, consider with me the following for a moment. There is continued good news in the industry about printed book sales being up, the decline of eBook sales, and the overall positive outlook by independent booksellers. We are hearing encouraging reports from many of our customers that business is growing and their customers are delighted to have a local bookstore where they can browse, shop, and generally spend a few hours “hanging out.” As the owners of one retail bookstore ourselves, we have experienced the same trend with year-over-year sales being up strongly. What are we hearing from our customers? They love the personal service—the experience of touching and feeling the printed book while being able to get assistance from our knowledgeable customer service team. They love the ability to just browse around and find new favorite authors or titles they would never have thought to buy online. Oh and most of all, they love the bargains.

Everybody loves a bargain right? As a bookstore owner there’s no one who should love a bargain more than you. As mentioned above it is very encouraging to see revenue growth in the category, but ultimately as business owners you need profitable growth. Top line is vanity, bottom line is reality. Let’s face it, double-digit sales growth is fantastic, but if the bottom line is not moving at the same pace, you’re not happy. And you shouldn’t be. This is where bargain books can help you. With a margin that is often double the margin you can achieve with new books, you cannot afford to be without bargain books in your store. With the advance of smartphones, tablets, and eReaders, we’ve seen many changes in the industry and in our business over the years. However, one thing has not changed: booklovers will never lose the appreciation for the tactile experience of the printed book.

If you’re a long-time customer, thank you for your loyalty and for the trust you have placed in us over the years. If this is your first time back after many years, I would encourage you to spend some time browsing our website so you can see for yourself our large selection and the changes we have made to our business. I’m confident you will find that shopping with us is a way to save time and money, and those are powerful benefits in today’s market. If you would rather not shop via our website, please call us and ask to speak to one of our experienced sales representatives, who would be happy to assist you by tailoring a list of products for your specific needs.

Book Depot is the single best seller in bargain books. Our vast selection of titles and fast processing times make us a valuable one-stop shop, cutting down on your purchasing time and overhead costs. More choice. Less time and cost.

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The Life Cycle of a Bargain Book

January 13, 2017

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