As always, an interesting and thought-provoking article and three cheers for looking things up in books. I thought I was the only one left. The issues you outined are why we no longer have an online store and choose to keep a bricks and mortar store open instead. The profit margin is just better because we don't have to spend as long photographing and writing up books. But when we did have an online store we always tried to make our listings meet our own expectations when we're buyers. If I'm buying online, I do expect to see clear photos of salient features and a succint description (overblown, irrelevant facts and hyperbole loses a sale to me every time). If a book is signed (or has some other distinguishing feature) I expect to see a photo of that and to read something in the description about how/where it was signed (or something else that speaks to authenticity). I have had enough experience with association members selling forgeries to know that those guarantees of authenticity don't mean much to many sellers, are hard to enforce and getting a refund from those sellers can also be really difficult. I'm not denigrating all members - some are clearly very honorouable and expert. But not all, so I treat association members the same as any other seller and judge them on the quality of their books and their customer service.
So many people have gone the other way - closing bricks and mortar stores and going online only! Good for you for going the other way. I have always tried to make online sales incidental - my goal is to sell books before they hit online marketplaces (I currently have a one-month lag between my website and other online venues). This year, my marketplace sales have jumped to almost 30% of sales, which is the highest it's ever been. I don't know why, and I certainly don't want to become dependent on those transactions.
For the reasons you describe, I've had to stop selling lower priced books. First it was $25 books, then $50, and now I won't even buy $100 items unless they are super cheap. I just can't spend the time to prepare them for sale (and I don't sell enough of them in person to justify it either). I regret that, but I just can't spend the time. (And customers whose budgets are constrained to under $100 books tend to ask the most questions and want the most information. I respect that, but I can't make a living serving them).
Another person contacted me directly about the difficulties of getting refunds from ABAA members. I certainly have had some tense interactions when I've tried to return books for being defective in some way. It's always a surprise because I always take returns. Good customer relations are always worth more to me than any single sale. But I recognize that some of my colleagues can be quite unpleasant when it comes to questioning their judgment about a book.
I will point out that the ABAA and IOBA both have ethics committees who will step into these situations. It's kind of a pain to file an ethics complaint, but its also true that most booksellers don't want their peers looking into their businesses and will work hard to avoid having to respond to the ethics committee. If you have problems with an association member in the future, you might try getting the ethics committee involved.
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to add your voice to the discussion.
I couldn't agree more on all those points. I've always believed that how you deal with a problem is what customers will actually remember. 1 bad transaction obliterates all the good transactions that went before. There are a lot of egos in bookworld and they are easily bruised. Some of them get very defensive very quickly, instead of just dealing with the problem swiftly and nicely. I don't understand it. Aren't we all in the business of customer service? And thank you for the tip about the ethics committee; I thought they were internal only. What happens if the person you need to make a complaint about is also a member of that committee? My experience contacting these organisations as a non-member has been that my queries are not taken seriously, so I'm trepidatious about going down this path.
My recommendations about filing an ethics complaint:
1) Read the ethics guidelines carefully and be sure to make an argument about why a particular incident is in violation of a particular section of the code (https://www.abaa.org/about-abaa/code-of-ethics - there's a link to the form at the very bottom)
2) Personally, I would prepare the claim and then I would send it to the dealer with a proposal for settlement, with a short deadline (48 hours). The goal is to resolve the complaint - going to the ethics committee is not unlike going to court, there's always uncertainty about how it's going to be resolved.
Have you ever tracked how likely it is that someone who asks X questions actually ends up making a purchase? If there's a 10% chance of a sale after 10 nitpicking questions, is it still worth it?
I would say the conversion rate is relatively low, maybe 20%. I don't mind the questions so much as the potential customer's insistence about how it gets answered, particularly when the question is predicated on proving a negative (that there's nothing wrong). If someone won't take my word for something when I offer a money back guarantee, and they insist on particular pictures, then I don't really want them as a customer - a customer being someone I work with over time. And while one-time internet sales are nice, you can't really build a business on them.
I totally get the bookseller's frustration at needing to take more photos of books. I've sold a lot of books online and have always tried to be as detailed as possible in my photos, especially with cosmetic or other defects. I also know that a lot of buyers have felt "screwed" by sellers, particularly on Abe (I read a lot about this on Reddit). The result of this is buyers wanting more and more pictures. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just pointing out that there are two sides.
I think I acknowledged that wanting pictures is not unreasonable, given the state of internet commerce. However, a lot of book buyers think all Abe sellers are the same when some of us offer guarantees and money back returns etc. I'm encouraging people to factor in who the seller is as part of their decision making research. I don't mind when people check first to make sure my description is accurate - I can make mistakes and sometime books get damaged between when they are catalogued and when they sell. But when potential customers won't take my word for it, then we don't need to do business together, and almost certainly someone else is going to buy the book.
As always, an interesting and thought-provoking article and three cheers for looking things up in books. I thought I was the only one left. The issues you outined are why we no longer have an online store and choose to keep a bricks and mortar store open instead. The profit margin is just better because we don't have to spend as long photographing and writing up books. But when we did have an online store we always tried to make our listings meet our own expectations when we're buyers. If I'm buying online, I do expect to see clear photos of salient features and a succint description (overblown, irrelevant facts and hyperbole loses a sale to me every time). If a book is signed (or has some other distinguishing feature) I expect to see a photo of that and to read something in the description about how/where it was signed (or something else that speaks to authenticity). I have had enough experience with association members selling forgeries to know that those guarantees of authenticity don't mean much to many sellers, are hard to enforce and getting a refund from those sellers can also be really difficult. I'm not denigrating all members - some are clearly very honorouable and expert. But not all, so I treat association members the same as any other seller and judge them on the quality of their books and their customer service.
So many people have gone the other way - closing bricks and mortar stores and going online only! Good for you for going the other way. I have always tried to make online sales incidental - my goal is to sell books before they hit online marketplaces (I currently have a one-month lag between my website and other online venues). This year, my marketplace sales have jumped to almost 30% of sales, which is the highest it's ever been. I don't know why, and I certainly don't want to become dependent on those transactions.
For the reasons you describe, I've had to stop selling lower priced books. First it was $25 books, then $50, and now I won't even buy $100 items unless they are super cheap. I just can't spend the time to prepare them for sale (and I don't sell enough of them in person to justify it either). I regret that, but I just can't spend the time. (And customers whose budgets are constrained to under $100 books tend to ask the most questions and want the most information. I respect that, but I can't make a living serving them).
Another person contacted me directly about the difficulties of getting refunds from ABAA members. I certainly have had some tense interactions when I've tried to return books for being defective in some way. It's always a surprise because I always take returns. Good customer relations are always worth more to me than any single sale. But I recognize that some of my colleagues can be quite unpleasant when it comes to questioning their judgment about a book.
I will point out that the ABAA and IOBA both have ethics committees who will step into these situations. It's kind of a pain to file an ethics complaint, but its also true that most booksellers don't want their peers looking into their businesses and will work hard to avoid having to respond to the ethics committee. If you have problems with an association member in the future, you might try getting the ethics committee involved.
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to add your voice to the discussion.
I couldn't agree more on all those points. I've always believed that how you deal with a problem is what customers will actually remember. 1 bad transaction obliterates all the good transactions that went before. There are a lot of egos in bookworld and they are easily bruised. Some of them get very defensive very quickly, instead of just dealing with the problem swiftly and nicely. I don't understand it. Aren't we all in the business of customer service? And thank you for the tip about the ethics committee; I thought they were internal only. What happens if the person you need to make a complaint about is also a member of that committee? My experience contacting these organisations as a non-member has been that my queries are not taken seriously, so I'm trepidatious about going down this path.
My recommendations about filing an ethics complaint:
1) Read the ethics guidelines carefully and be sure to make an argument about why a particular incident is in violation of a particular section of the code (https://www.abaa.org/about-abaa/code-of-ethics - there's a link to the form at the very bottom)
2) Personally, I would prepare the claim and then I would send it to the dealer with a proposal for settlement, with a short deadline (48 hours). The goal is to resolve the complaint - going to the ethics committee is not unlike going to court, there's always uncertainty about how it's going to be resolved.
Good luck!
Have you ever tracked how likely it is that someone who asks X questions actually ends up making a purchase? If there's a 10% chance of a sale after 10 nitpicking questions, is it still worth it?
I would say the conversion rate is relatively low, maybe 20%. I don't mind the questions so much as the potential customer's insistence about how it gets answered, particularly when the question is predicated on proving a negative (that there's nothing wrong). If someone won't take my word for something when I offer a money back guarantee, and they insist on particular pictures, then I don't really want them as a customer - a customer being someone I work with over time. And while one-time internet sales are nice, you can't really build a business on them.
I totally get the bookseller's frustration at needing to take more photos of books. I've sold a lot of books online and have always tried to be as detailed as possible in my photos, especially with cosmetic or other defects. I also know that a lot of buyers have felt "screwed" by sellers, particularly on Abe (I read a lot about this on Reddit). The result of this is buyers wanting more and more pictures. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just pointing out that there are two sides.
I think I acknowledged that wanting pictures is not unreasonable, given the state of internet commerce. However, a lot of book buyers think all Abe sellers are the same when some of us offer guarantees and money back returns etc. I'm encouraging people to factor in who the seller is as part of their decision making research. I don't mind when people check first to make sure my description is accurate - I can make mistakes and sometime books get damaged between when they are catalogued and when they sell. But when potential customers won't take my word for it, then we don't need to do business together, and almost certainly someone else is going to buy the book.
I totally agree. My expectation is that people are reasonable on both sides.