Q&A: Why are book sales so slow on Amazon?
QUESTION: You recently mentioned that sales on Amazon have been slow. I belong to a site called PaperbackSwap.com, which has over 1 million books now. I'm wondering if this site or other swapping sites like it can have an impact on overall book sales. I don't have statistics on the number of members or total trades, but it must have some impact. ANSWER: There are several of these sites but I doubt they have much impact. I suspect that only a fraction of the public knows about them compared to the awareness of Amazon, eBay and Half.com. And it seems many of the books popular on the swapping sites would be the same ones that are oversupplied on Amazon and selling for pennies. Just a guess.
The recent slow sales are due mostly, I think, to increased competition among sellers and the time of the year. July is always one of my slowest months. But things pick up in August when students start going back to school. August is always my biggest month, and January is a close No. 2.
The other things that have hurt recently is Amazon's increasing emphasis on free shipping and Fulfillment by Amazon, FBA. Those two things make us regular sellers a lot less competitive.
There's been a lot of speculation about FBA -- that fewer sellers are signing up than Amazon had hoped. On the other hand, just today Amazon announced plans to build one of its biggest fulfillment centers yet. The announcement of this Phoenix warehouse mentions nothing about FBA. But since it's one of Amazon's biggest fulfillment centers yet and they plan to hire hundreds of people there, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a connection. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean Amazon is doing something smart -- when we had the dot-com crash of 1999-2000 Amazon had to dump several brand-new warehouses to cut costs.
Things aren't any better over on eBay lately. AuctionBytes has a good analysis of the declining traffic and number of auction listings over the past couple of years.
The thing that could really kill us is e-books, if they ever become that widely available and people really start using them. It's been predicted for a long time but hasn't happened yet. And I'm hoping it won't during my lifetime.
posted by Steve Weber at 7/03/2007
9 Comments:
the statistics for Paperbackswap.
Books
* Books Available: 1,301,113
* Books Posted in last 60 minutes: 359
* Books Posted All Time: 3,387,549
* Unique Titles Available: 287,333
Books Mailed
* Books Mailed All-Time: 1,430,917
* Books Mailed in last 7 days: 30,902
* Books Mailed Today: 2,191
Members
* Members Online Now: 1,394
* Members Logged In Today: 8,220
* Members in Chat: 7
* Public Profiles: 19,599
You are right about Paperback Swap. I belong to it but I use it to get rid of books that I can't sell. Nothing valuable ever seems to get swapped but it is a nice service for people who like to read a lot of fiction.
I've been a member of PBS for over a year. Besides reading material that I will pass along later, I've found hardcover copies to complete mystery sets, as well as some collectible children's fiction -- happily saving some $$. In some cases the books were in better condition than available copies I was considering for purchase; of course, that can go both ways!
I've also gotten rid of scads of generic paperbacks and non-selling titles in many genres; I'm glad someone wants them and I earn credits off them instead of hauling them to the FOL. You can put some valuable titles on your wishlist in hopes that 10+ copies will eventually be listed (to clear the waitlist in front of you), but I think many people will give up that hope after awhile and go looking again on eBay or AM.
I have some titles on my wishlist, that should they ever turn up, I'll sell them immediately. You don't ever know what will turn up in a pile at someone's house... you can use this site from many angles.
It's not just other sites offering book sales that is impacting on marketplace sellers. A number of publications detailing how easy it is to sell on amazon and making ludicrous claims on the profits available is bring more sellers into the marketplace.
I've reviewed one of the books, rather unkindly, Here
there are a number of people trying to make money by reselling freely available info, and the very active marketing they are doing with these schemes is quite disturbing!
I think slow sales have less to do with the market in general and more to do with individual seller behavior. It's important to add new inventory as often as possible and to reprice regularly, too.
I believe book swapping sights are populated with people who aren't willing to pay more than $9.99 for a book -- not our customer base. So it shouldn't be hurting sales.
As for FBA, I still think most of my customers think I *am* Amazon, so that doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
And with regard to e-books, not to sound like an old codger, but I doubt the printed word will ever go out of style. Sure, people may purchase DaVinci Code or Guns, Germs and Steel in a downloadable format, but academic books, art books, graphic novels, cookbooks, small press, bizarre how-to, vintage paperbacks and rare books are where the bulk of my sales are, and I can't imagine most of those going digital. Even if they do, I don't sense trouble. Video doesn't exactly kill the radio star; I sold over 300 dollars worth of VHS tapes last week.
What slow sales, e-books and paperback swaps will do is weed out the get-rich-quickers who have either no interest in books or no innate business sense (which is why they purchase $40 manuals on how to make money online and follow them to the letter). So I say, bring it on! (But I'm seriously excited about August.)
I've been selling books online for about a year--with a real focus over the last 6 months. In reading the blogs and postings on Amazon, I am amazed at the negativity. I guess this is coming from folks who have been selling for years and notice some bad trends.
For me, this started as a way to pay for my own reading habit, which was maybe $50 a month. Now, it's a decent side income. I have been amazed at how my business has grown. I have some up days and weeks and some down, but all in all, things have been great!
I also belong to Paperbackswap and to Titletrader. I have picked up quite a few nice books and movies by being patient. A few times I've fond books that were selling on amazon for between $20-50. So sites like those will work for people who have things to trade and are patient. It's not for everyone.
Since the postal increase, trades have slowed down a bit on those sites too. It's costing in postage between $2.37-3? per each item traded. So it would seem that moving books is slow not just for sellers.
one man gathers what another man spills i guess... i love how people come up with general theories about why their books are not selling on amazon... july is the slowest, jan and august are the best, people are on vacation etc... its funny because in the first seven days of july, i have already matched my $$$ total from last month... july has been by far my busiest month yet... we can all sit here and conjecture about the reasons book sales may slow or hasten-- and we can also theorize and ponificate about all of the reasons the phillies will win the world series... fact is- we have no frikkin idea... all you can do is have good books and a good service...
Yeah but July has been my absolute worst month EVER...so far. Not fair. Do-over!
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