Ordering through Bookshop. As I've mentioned in previous newsletters, and as we link at the top of our website, we have a new partner for online book ordering called Bookshop.org. If you purchase books there via the Phinney Books store (bookshop.org/shop/phinneybooks), the books are shipped to you directly from that same supplier's warehouse (Ingram, for those of you who know the books business), and we receive 30% of the purchase price. There's been some understandable confusion, so I want to clarify: Bookshop is not our website. We don't fulfill the books, or have any control over that process: we just get a significant portion of the purchases we send there, and—equally importantly to us—we also get the benefit of an easy-to-use place for our customers to order a very wide range of books (far more than we could ever carry in our store). But they also are a very new site, still in their beta phase, and while the ordering process is simple and well-designed, and, from what I've seen, the shipping and delivery of the books works well, they also don't have much of a customer-service side to their business yet. (I know they are building that out as fast as they can.) If you have anything to share about your experience there, we'll be happy to hear it, and of course if you have any trouble ordering there, we want to hear that too. So far, it seems to be working well, and we've been delighted to see how many sales have come through our store there—it really makes a difference in how we can weather these times. (All the book links I've added below go directly to Bookshop, by the way.)
And so the question a number of you have been asking us: which do we prefer you do, order from us, or from Bookshop? The short answer is: we're delighted either way. Our 30% share from Bookshop sales might not seem like that much, but it's really substantial, especially for sales that require almost no work from us, and it's already added up remarkably. Thank you! We do make a little more (generally 40-45%) from sales made directly through us, so we're of course happy to take those orders. And we're also glad that those orders help us keep in touch with you. So my response would be to order the way you prefer, and just know that we are very thankful to be getting you books either way. We've had a fantastic amount of support over the past few weeks, and it means everything to our business, and our place in the neighborhood, over the long term. We fully expect to be here for a long time, and that's all because of you.
Sorry for the lengthy note, but I do want to make the ordering process as easy and clear for you as possible. And I expect we'll be operating under these conditions for more than a week this time, so I won't have to yammer on about the process for a while. Hunker down, surround yourself with good books if you're able, and we'll see you on the other side. And maybe next week we can just talk about books, and not logistics.
To become a Bookshop Partner Store: [email protected]
And so the question a number of you have been asking us: which do we prefer you do, order from us, or from Bookshop? The short answer is: we're delighted either way. Our 30% share from Bookshop sales might not seem like that much, but it's really substantial, especially for sales that require almost no work from us, and it's already added up remarkably. Thank you! We do make a little more (generally 40-45%) from sales made directly through us, so we're of course happy to take those orders. And we're also glad that those orders help us keep in touch with you. So my response would be to order the way you prefer, and just know that we are very thankful to be getting you books either way. We've had a fantastic amount of support over the past few weeks, and it means everything to our business, and our place in the neighborhood, over the long term. We fully expect to be here for a long time, and that's all because of you.
Sorry for the lengthy note, but I do want to make the ordering process as easy and clear for you as possible. And I expect we'll be operating under these conditions for more than a week this time, so I won't have to yammer on about the process for a while. Hunker down, surround yourself with good books if you're able, and we'll see you on the other side. And maybe next week we can just talk about books, and not logistics.
To become a Bookshop Partner Store: [email protected]