What You Need to Know to Start a Used Book Business
Business Overview:
If you’ve ever had an occasion to sell used books online you know it can be a lucrative hobby, but did you know it can also be a fantastic business opportunity? Do a search around the big book-selling sites like Amazon or Half and you will easily see the potential for operating your own used book business online. You may want to begin by creating a used book store business plan. To get started, you might try selling a few of your used books to get a feel for this business idea. From there you can decide how much time and energy you want to invest in the business. You can go through your own inventory of books for saleable items or you can do a bit of book scouting in your area—at library sales, thrift stores, garage sales, etc.—to find books that might be worth selling online. Once you’ve made a few sales and provided fast shipping and good customer service, your seller’s rating will go up and you can easily make a name for yourself as a top-notch book seller. From there, it’s up to you how many books you want to post for sale—it is entirely possible to turn this online business idea into a well-oiled enterprise. When that happens, you might consider hiring employees to help you scout for books, post your items for sale, and take care of shipping. Until then it’s up to you to build your book business—happy hunting!
A Day in the Life of an online book seller business owner:
If you will be selling used books online as a primary business, you will want to ensure you have a solid and ever-growing inventory to keep building your customer base. You or your employees will want to scout at every turn for books that might bring a good profit—sometimes gems can be found in the most unlikely places. You will also want to continually make your selling site easy to use and dynamic so that customers get a good feel for your merchandise (enabling them to “peek” inside a book online is a real customer pleaser). Of course, a daily task in this business will be shipping books to your customers. You will have to do this in the most timely fashion in order to compete with other sellers’ customer service. Finally, you will have to keep up with your business expenses and profits to see to the success of your enterprise.
About Your Customers:
Your customers will run the gamut from book lovers in search of treasured or unique books to students needing specific books for school assignments to book collectors to one-time buyers. You will have to make sure your site is up to date and your customer service is stellar so that you have the opportunity to gain repeat customers.
What You Need to Start:
- An inventory of books
- A selling page on a site like Amazon
- Shipping materials in a variety of sizes
- Financial-tracking software
The Good:
- You can start a solid business from home doing something you enjoy.
- The used book business holds up in strained economies.
- Initial investment can be very reasonable—sometimes nothing at all if you’ve already got books to sell.
- You can build your business reputation as the go-to used book seller.
- You can easily hire employees to assist you in your business.
The Bad:
- It may take some time to understand what books bring in money and which are not worth selling.
- The competition can be stiff; selling online is an international industry.
Resources:
- Independent Online Booksellers Association
- American Booksellers Association
- Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America
- Wikipedia on Used Books
About The Author
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