Book Store 1 month in

[rogercbryan]

Howdy,

I've now had my bookstore up and running for about 30 days. Today is the first day I have a full staff of 5 people working for me on this project. To date we have listed 1000 books on our Amazon site and are expecting to sell about 250 books this week.

Total Sales: $1114.66
Units: 140
Avg Sale P: $7.96 (NET)
*Two weeks of partial operations

Our target Avg Sale Price was $5.00 (NET) so we are well ahead of that goal. We are also looking to sell about 1000 books a week by Jan 1st. This is our operational break even point. I'm not sure if I can reach that or not. Technically Jan 1st would be our 60 day mark so if I have to wait until Feb 1st I would still only have been up and running for 90 days.

I have a little over $40,000 invested in this project to date and I expect to spend another $5000 to $10000 building another storage area in my warehouse. This keep my full break even point a bit out into the future but still in site. I originally budgeted only $25000 for the project but I have obviously went way over that.

At 1000 sales per week I should NET (after COGS, Staff, Utilities, Fuel... all basic operational expenses) about $2500 in income. At that target I would have about 20 weeks to full break even which would put me somewhere in May or June. This would be nice as I took all my profits from 2008 and invested them in this store. So I guess no XMas bonus for me this year.

I'm open to any and all questions you might have. This is my second 'real business' so I'm looking to improve my skills with some feedback.

Visit my Amazon Store!
Amazon.com:thriftit Storefront

I'll be going onto eBay next week for some of our specialty items as well.

[visua]

It sounds as if you have your backend and finances worked out pretty well.

Expand your sales channels. Amazon is obviously a great bookstore, but google products, yahoo, and many other sites provide listing services for items and sales.

Have you though about opening your own website and marketing it to specific crowds in your local neighborhood? Often elderly people can't make it to the bookstore, but they sure read a lot!

Good luck with your venture!

[rogercbryan]

It sounds as if you have your backend and finances worked out pretty well.

Expand your sales channels. Amazon is obviously a great bookstore, but google products, yahoo, and many other sites provide listing services for items and sales.

Have you though about opening your own website and marketing it to specific crowds in your local neighborhood? Often elderly people can't make it to the bookstore, but they sure read a lot!

Good luck with your venture!

I have a site being developed but it only links to the current market places I'm selling on. I don't want to try and reinvent the wheel by creating my own market.

Have you ever sold books on Google or Yahoo? I plan on adding eBay and 3 different specialty book sites to my sales platform before the end of the year. Google and Yahoo are not on my list as I don't consider them to be viable markets for books... I may be wrong.

[Pwdrin]

If they are books on Educational courses like A levels etc. Some do actually look on ebay.

[rogercbryan]

If they are books on Educational courses like A levels etc. Some do actually look on ebay.

If what is what? What are A Level books? Do they sell well on eBay? Not sure what you are saying

[Underhill]

He means textbooks, A levels are a level in school in the U.K.

[Uta]

Why don't set up your own online store? Amazon and eBay are too large so that your product ranking there are too low. Your books may have few chance to appear. Here is a suggestion. Take a close look at fastcommerce free shopping cart software. It is low-cost, high-powered e-commerce platform. Easy to use! Beautiful templates! Great back office tools! no set up costs! and no contract!

Easy Google Analytics Integration!

Your product catalog automatically submitted to Google Shopping.

[Fanatik]

He already said he's not going to reinvent the wheel, which makes sense for this niche. Let's face it: Amazon wouldn't be doing so well if the merchants on there aren't selling. Roger, it looks like you've got this thing ironed out pretty well. Most people don't even take the financial forecasting seriously enough to begin a venture like this.

If you're working the Amazon angle, I say keep doing it. If you do build your own website, I think having a simple layout with your amazon bookstore on it (like an affiliate site almost) would be most beneficial. That way, you have visitors to your site, yet you're still linking them up with your product that resides on Amazon. It gives the feel of 'your own store', while not really being such.

I've run online businesses on my own carts, and I liked the Yahoo one for it's ease and reporting features; everything else I hated. Amazon is setup differently though, and I think for books, you've nailed it. Keep us posted!

J

[byzantium]

You might try adding Craigslist to the mix. It will be small volume, but the extra income will be nice to have. Selling "books" is rather broad, are you selling a specific type of book? Some books are more in demand than others. Technical books and textbooks are in demand. I know that college bookstores in the US charge way too much for used books, and their "competition" is usually limited to ONE off campus bookstore that claims to be cheaper but is really in cahoots with the college and is only a few cents cheaper. I haven't been in college for years, so I don't know if there's a viable online source for used textbooks. It might be worth looking into. Used novels are a dime a dozen, everybody sells them. Out of print nonfiction works might be doable.

[rogercbryan]

You might try adding Craigslist to the mix. It will be small volume, but the extra income will be nice to have. Selling "books" is rather broad, are you selling a specific type of book? Some books are more in demand than others. Technical books and textbooks are in demand. I know that college bookstores in the US charge way too much for used books, and their "competition" is usually limited to ONE off campus bookstore that claims to be cheaper but is really in cahoots with the college and is only a few cents cheaper. I haven't been in college for years, so I don't know if there's a viable online source for used textbooks. It might be worth looking into. Used novels are a dime a dozen, everybody sells them. Out of print nonfiction works might be doable.

We have found that a lot of books like Steven King are not worth much on Amazon (after shipping) so we have started to gather all of those together. We are planning on selling them 50 for $50 on Craigslist. We've seen other people offering those types of deals. It's a little more 'retail' then I had initially planned but I think can generate decent income.

We are also offering 700-800 lbs cases of used books on pallets in boxes that can be shipped anywhere in the US.

Types:
Mixed (all types of books); $50 per bin + $12 deposit on case
All Hardbacks $250 per bin + $12 deposit on case
All Textbooks (w/ some Encyclopedias & Dictionaries) $200 per bin +$12 deposit on case
Children's Books $175 per bin + $12 deposit on case

Each bin has about 600-800 books and the prices are negotiable for volume orders. We can also assist in the shipping.

We are going to try to process 30,000 books next week so I'm looking for volume buyers who are thinking of opening their own books store. I can certainly be your supplier for used books. I have more then I know what to do with right now!

[ideamaned]

Wow... it sounds like you're rolling along pretty well. I have a publisher/bookseller friend with more than 20,000 titles and it took him many years to find the right formula for success, to the point of almost losing his home. (And he is actually like a genius.)

In recent years I just marvel at how his warehouse space has expanded and how far he has come.

Anyway, I am aware of how difficult the book business can be.

It sounds like you are on a clear path. Good job!

[shawn0001]

Good for you rogercbryan. Its nice to see someone doing what they love. Keep up the good work.

[1entrepreneur]

Well done.