Bookstore Management

How to Manage Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 23:39:00 +0000

Running a bookstore whether it is a brick and mortar or online shop is similar to running other retail stores. In general, a small bookstore can have a collection of thousands of book titles whose quantity, authors and category have to be stored in a good database management system, A customer who enters a bookstore may ask certain title from a shopkeeper whether it is available or not.
This Database Management System in online store is available for purchase or download on the internet. Server based shopping cart application such as VPASP, ZENCART. Most of this Ecommerce software can be customized by bookstore owners if they want to share their books online.
For brick and mortar bookstores, the use of POS that is connected with records of inventory and cash register increase the operational efficiency of the bookselling business.
How a bookstore is managed determines the success and failure of the business. In the internet era where millions of ebooks can be read and downloaded, the survival of a brick and mortar bookstore is becoming more difficult. Bookstore owners must think of selling their books online to get more customers or loose the competition and kicked out of the business.
Another way of getting more customers is implementing proactive marketing. Spreading leaflets to residential areas about newly arrived books and sending emails to old customers about books that are relevant to their interest can be an effective strategy to increase sales.
Although books can now be read using ebook readers and tablets, a lot of people still like to hold physical paper and the ink smell of the printed papers.

The Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 03:54:00 +0000

The Bookstore is a title of a novel written by Deborah Meyler. It tells the journey of personal discovery of Esme Garland. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean from London, this independent girl received a prestigeous scholarship to study art history at Columbia University. Happily settling in New York, this smart girl had a 2-week encounter with a wealthy and good looking New Yorker Mitchell van Leuven. He was a teacher in a private bookstore. It turned out to be a bad decisions. He was enchanted by Esme but not in love with her. Mitchell left Esme as she was on the brink of telling him about her pregnancy.
She had to find a job to support her life and her child. She got a job at a secondhand bookstore - The Owl.
This is a gorgeous novel well researched and beautifully written by the author. This easy to read book is not only about love story of Esme but also about the love of books and the struggle of the bookstore owner trying to survive. Deborah's description about New York City, the Owl and the book lovers who frequent the bookstore was fantastic. Reading this, we could imagine a small bookstores filled with shelves on the walls and feel the smell of the books.

Store Lay Out and Impulse Buying

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:55:00 +0000

I was watching several supermarket psychology videos in youtube.com about store entrances, lay-out and impulse buying. Store owners usually design the lay-out of the shelves and the display of the merchandise in a way that allows people to walk through most of products in the store and specific goods that they want to sell more. The lay-out of the shop will greatly affects the number of goods which people will buy. People who walk through certain products may purchase goods that they did not plan to buy when they were still at homes. This unplanned decision is also called impulse buying or impulse purchase. Another approach that retailers use to sell certain products to customers is by putting them on the shelves or tables near the cashiers. All of the customers who walk to the cashier area will see these products and may decide to buy them.

Impulse buying can also be increased by inside marketing strategy. Banners that exhibit new electronic products can be placed at the entrance of the stores to attract the attention of customers.

In terms of online stores, banner ads and text links can be put on website area that is called above the fold. This is the area in the website which visitors can see directly when opening the sites without have to move the scroll bar of the computer or tablet. To enhance the advertisement performance, the banners can be designed with combination of moving texts and images. The use of Adobe Flash software for designing the ads will yield in attractive banner ads that can increase impulse buying of an online store.

Profit Margin of a Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:37:00 +0000

Most of the brick and mortar bookstores charge profit margins that are higher than supermarkets and grocery stores. Books are now available in electronic formats and can be sold throughout the world through online shop. Electronic books are cheaper because they do not need paper. Conventional books can be sold with profit margin as low as 30%. If the books are printed in colors, their prices will be two or three times higher than the black and white books.
In modern era where smartphones and tablets have been part of our daily life, more people buy and read electronic books that are purchased and downloaded online. Because there are no printing, shipping and distribution costs involved in the selling of such books, the profit margin a publisher or bookshop charges to customers can be as low as 5%.
In the US, we see that the role of brick and mortar bookstores is getting smaller. More information is now available on the internet. University students and researchers can store hundreds of titles of books in their tablets and e-readers while they go to campus. The market share of e-books is increasing. Owners of brick and mortar bookstores have to adapt with this situation. They can start to sell e-books too. Although the profit margin is small, the number of books sold to customers will be significantly higher than printed copies.

Android Tablets

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 04:04:00 +0000

Tablets that use Android Operating System from Google are now dominating the market. In the US, iPad from Apple and Kindle Fire from Amazon have to compete against Samsung Galaxy. Nokia is not a global leader in cell phone industry anymore. Consumers prefer Android tablets to Windows smartphones. They are affordable and can perform various functions include working as digital camera, GPS device, telephone, portable hotspot, and ebook reader. There are still a lot of people that do not need sophisticated tablet. Simple cell phone only for calling and sending text message still have market share. So, cell phone manufacturers should not abandon these kind of products. Some businessmen whom I met say that they use cell phones that do not have high-tech feature.

Android Tablet and Ebook Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 16:12:00 +0000

Cheap Android tablet manufactured by Chinese electronic and computer companies are entering the market. They are cheap and can be used as ebook readers. Compared to ordinary ebook reader Kobomini, cheap Tablet PCs that use Android as their operating system are more attractive because they can perform such functions as cell phones, e-book reader, calculator, digital camera and internet browser.
Apple as the largest producer of tablet computer is now loosing its market share, particularly in China and other South East Asian Market where Android Tablet PCs are more affordable to consumers.
A few days ago, I bought a tablet called Maxtron for 165 US dollars. It is a famous brand in Indonesia but unknown in the USA and Canada. The mobile device has got 2 built in cameras, 5MP and 8MP back camera with flash light. The monitor is 7" LCR screen with 1024 x 600 pixels resolution and multi-touch input method. Users of this Tablet can read e-books using PDF viewer or Documents to Go software application that has been installed by in the shop by the cell phone vendor.
The market for such device is booming in this South East Asian region because students and office workers need affordable smartphones that are multi-functional. In addition to reading books and browsing the internet, users can watch analog tv or listen to the radio directly from the device. GPS and A-GPS features are really helpful in helping users position while they are in places new to them. In addition to Maxtron, other Android tablets that are being offered to Indonesian consumers are Mito, Asus, Lenovo and and Acer.
A lot of book lovers prefer Kindle Fire, Kobo or Sony Ebook Reader as their favorite reading devices.

50 Management Ideas You Really Need to Know

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:39:00 +0000

This book reveals secrets of important concepts which businessmen, managers and students must understand. The 50 management ideas present brief description about the wisdom of business gurus from Ansoff dan Drucker to Peters and Porter. It also provides explanation on new business terminologies and concepts including the blue ocean strategy, long tail and Web 2.0

Balanced Scorecard
Benchmarking
Blue Ocean Strategy
Matrix Boston
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
Brand
Channel Management
Core Competence
Corporate Governance
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Strategy
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Decentralization
Diversification
Pareto Principle
Empowerment
Entrepreneurship
Curve of Experience
The Five Forces of Experience
4 Ps in Marketing
Globalization
Innovation
Japanese Management
Economy of Knowledge
Leadership
Lean Manufacturing
Learning Organization
Long Tail
Loyality
Management by Objectives (MBO)
Market Segmentation
Merger and Acquisition
Organization Excellence
Outsourching
Project Management
Scientific Management
Six Sigma
Stakeholder
Strategic Alliance
Supply chain Management (SCM)
System of thinking
Theory of X and Y (and Theory of Z)
Tipping Point
Total Quality Management (TQM)
Value Chain
War and Strategy
Web 2.0
Which business you are in?

Advanced Financial Accounting

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:20:00 +0000

The Advanced Financial Accounting provides comprehensive explanations with a lot of illustrations about accounting and reporting principles that are widely used in various business entities. Every day, business newspapers present information on the possibilities of merger and acquisition phenomenons, the complexity of modern business, the structure of new organisation for running a business and accounting scandals that are related to complicated business transactions from overseas activities of multinational corporations, government and non-profit entities. An accountant must know how to deal with the influence of accounting and reporting on the above issues.
Authors: Richar E. Baker, Theodore Christensen, David Cottrell
Topics of discussions:

Acquisition among companies and investment on other entities;
Reporting ownership between companies;
Consolidation of Entities and Consolidation of Financial Report;
Consolidation on the Date of Acquisition;
Consolidation After the Acquisition;
Debts Between Companies;
Issues of Ownership in Consolidation
Other Issues in the Reports that are Related to Consolidation
and etc.

The business environment in the United States might be the most dynamic and competitive in the world. There are new companies and new products that enter the business world but there are also other companies that have to go out of business or experience substantial changes in order to survive. In this situation, the existing companies often realize that they have to merge with other businesses or establish new operations in other sectors that are growing.

In recent years, the business world has seen a lot of acquisition and mergers which often involve big and famous corporations. Some of the mergers have attracted public attention due to the involvement of important figures and their strategies that are implemented with huge amount of money at stake.

Today's business environment is the most attractive and challenging in history signified by the fast changes and high complexities. In this environment, such regulators as Securities and Exchange Commission - SEC and Financial Accounting Standards Board have to give immediate action to give appropriate response that ensure the continues advantage of accounting report that reflects the reality of the economy.

Wall bookshelves of Periplus Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:39:00 +0000

I visited a Periplus bookstore on the main street of Ubud town more than one week ago. It was a nice bookstore with large collections of books about travel, art and culture and language. Books about Bali and Indonesia; including Elizabeth Gilberth's Eat, Pray Love; dominated the shelves. Books about meditation, massage, spa, and yoga meditation got significant number of spaces in the bookshop. Most of the books were arranged neatly on wall bookshelves whose heights was around 2.5 meters. The color of the wall bookshelves was black with lights on the top of each of them. I like the layout of the bookshop. There was only one staff handling the store. He was sitting at the cashier table handling the POS cashier machine, supervising customers through CCTV cameras that were installed on the ceilings and doing the administration or the paper works of the bookstore.

There is another bookstore called Ganesha bookshop some 400 meters from this Periplus. It is smaller than the Periplus bookshop and it is run by 2 staff. Ganesha bookshop does not have a POS cashier machine. The staff of the bookstore calculate all of the transactions using a small calculator and records them on a book. It is interesting to see that Ganesha bookshop gets more visitors each day. Both the Periplus and the Ganesha bookstore use wall bookshelves to efficiently use their limited spaces. Customers of these stores are mainly international travelers who come from Europe, the United States, Australia, Japan and China. by Charles Roring

Ganesha bookstore serves foreign customers

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:18:00 +0000

I visited Ganesha bookstore a few days ago. In Balinese Hinduism, Ganesha is the god of knowledge. It was located in Ubud, a famous tourist destination in Bali island. It was not a big shop. The size of the bookstore was around 5 meters x 10 meters. Most of the books that were displayed on the shelves were written by foreign authors from Europe, Australia or North America about Bali and Indonesia. Ganesha bookstore also had a large collection of novels. One of them was Eat, Pray, Love (EPL) by Elizabeth Gilberth. The novel had been remade into a movie with the same name starred by Julia Roberts.
Bali is one of the provinces of Indonesia. Most of its inhabitants speak Bahasa Indonesia. However, the owners of the bookstore know that their main customers are not Indonesian but foreign tourists that come from as far as Amsterdam, Tokyo and Sydney. These customers need books about Indonesia or Bali that are written in English or their languages. In addition to books, other merchandises which it offers are newspapers, maps, postcards, and some traditional music instruments made of bamboo.
While in the Ganesha bookstore, I bought a map of Papua and Maluku islands. I really need the map when I have to guide tourists in Manokwari regency on bird watching and snorkeling tours. I was a little bit surprised to find out that the bookstore does not have POS (Point of Sales) system. It was manned by two women, one at the cashier table handling the transactions and one supervising the customers. The staff at the bookstore cashier only used a small calculator to calculate all of the transactions which would later be recorded on a book manually.
Ganesha bookstore in Ubud town of Bali island was quite busy during the day. I saw some European visitors. There was a Japanese couple there too. It was a nice bookstore. I recommend it to anybody who wants to visit Ubud – the culture center of Bali. So, next time when you go to Bali, don’t forget to visit the bookshop. By Charles Roring.

Designing a bookstore shopping cart

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:13:00 +0000

So, you want to design a shopping cart software for bookstore. I think, you don't have to. Today, there are a lot of e-commerce software that anybody can use to sell books on the internet. Free shopping cart software such as os commerce, and zencart can power your online bookstore.
Your are a bookstore owner not a programmer
As an owner of a bookstore, I don't want to make my life more complicated by trying to invent what somebody else has made. I prefer promoting my products to designing a new shopping cart software that requires an excellent knowledge in php or asp programming language. This is something that I cannot do.
Astore widget of Amazon.com
If you really want have an online bookstore so badly, you can sign up for an account in Amazon.com as an associate of the largest bookstore in the world. There will be a widget in your associate account called astore. You can embed it inside your blog or static website. Amazon.com has developed a cutting edge shopping cart software for the astore which you can use to make money online buy promoting it inside your blog or website. So, why do you have to invent a new wheel again?
In astore shopping cart software, you can customize its categories to adapt with the content of your website. To customize the astore, you need to sign in to your associate account in Amazon.com and click the astore tab. Inside your Amazon Associate account, you can also see the reports of the items that you have sold and the advertizing fee that you can collect from them and that will be paid by the largest online store in the world. by Charles Roring
Related article: Starting an online bookstore

How much does it cost to start a bookstore?

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Starting a bookstore needs capital. If you are now planning to open a bookstore as your business, you need to make a market survey first before deciding how much you will invest for your bookselling business. From my personal experience, I opened my home based bookstore by investing 65 million rupiahs (Indonesian currency). It was in early 2007. If this amount is converted into the current exchange rate, it is approximately the same as 7,303 US dollars.
The amount of money that you will spend will be much lower if what you plan to start is an online store. You don't need bookshelves, or big show room for your online bookstore. You don't even have to order books from publishers if you open your bookstore as an associate of Amazon.com.
An associate of Amazon.com write reviews about products, not only books, that Amazon.com sell in their website. The reviews are uploaded into your own website or blog. If you use blogger, you can embed the product code of Amazon.com that you want to promote inside your blog post. When somebody buys the books, or electronic products, you will get some money from Amazon.com.
So, how much does it cost to start a bookstore? Suppose that you have a laptop and free internet connection. You don't have to spend even 1 dollar to start an online bookstore. What you need to do is set up a blog in blogger account. Write original/ content rich posts about anything that you know or you are an expert in. After that embed the products or books from Amazon.com inside your posts. You will begin to make money in no time. by Charles Roring
How much capital do you need to start a bookstore business?

online bookstore software

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:55:00 +0000

All online bookstore owners need POS software to run their business. In my previous posts I mentioned some open source e-commerce shopping cart that they can use to start and manage their online bookstore. Because the open source software are free, store owners only need to pay the webhosting package and install one of them for their online bookstore website.
I recommend OS Commerce and Zencart for your online business. However, if you are interested in a licensed software for security reason, you can buy VPASP. I do not want to give any comments whether licensed software is better or not because the security of transactions in online stores greatly depends on a lot of factors. Zencart or OS Commerce use mysql database system and PHP language to power the online store whereas VPASP uses ASP programming language. When dealing with customers, online bookstore that is powered by the software deals with the customers directly meaning that store owners or cashiers do not have to input each transaction data into the POS (Point of Sales) software of the store computer. All the transactions run automatically. Store owners will processed the transaction from the back office web-page of their websites.
I personally have tested both Zencart and VPASP. I prefer Zencart to VPASP because it is free and scalable. With Zencart e-commerce software, we can sell not only books from our online retail store but also music and e-books. I suggest that you install zencart or vpasp in your computer and practice using it before you can really start your own online bookstore. If you don't practice using it offline, you will not be familiar with its features or functions and as result your bookstore may not run properly when you operate it online.

Wooden wall bookshelves for a bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 08:48:00 +0000

Most bookstores need wall bookshelves to display the books that they want to sell to customers. The wall bookshelves have to be in inclined positions to make the books more visible when customers look at them. I personally designed my wall bookshelves between 60 to 70 degrees. Flat wooden panels have to be nailed at the bottom of the shelves to support the books so that they will not fall. Also with the inclined position, the books that are arranged will not buckle.
Picture 1 Inclined Bookshelf

Perhaps you still don't understand my explanation, to help you understand how a set of good wall bookshelves should be manufactured, please, see the following photograph. I designed the bookshelves by myself and had it made by a furniture company in my town. So far, I think that this is one of the best bookshelves that I have ever designed. Customers can see all of the books easily when standing around one and a half meter from wall.
Picture 2. Inclined Bookshelf for Bookstore

Wooden wall bookshelves that have books on them will become very heavy. If your bookstore is located in an earthquake region, the top part of bookshelves have to be screwed or tied to the wall to prevent them from falling. We never know when an earthquake hits our town. Nailing or screwing bookshelves to the wall is a good way to ensure the safety of the customers who are walking through the aisles of the bookstore. by Charles Roring

University Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:21:00 +0000

Students often buy books from university bookstore because they can get used books that are offered in prices that are much cheaper than the prices of new books. However, the collection of books in a university bookstore is not as many as what we can find in general bookstore in the downtown or city center. University bookstore tends to sell books that are published by the university. Today, students have a lot of options to buy books that they really need. They can contact their friends in campus who have the books that they are looking for or they can just open their laptop and connect to the internet to search for the books both in the online bookstores or online libraries.
Internet offers a lot of information that we can get for free without having to spend money. For research purposes, the information that is available in the internet has to be verified with books that are written by professors or experts in certain university. Because most of the books or research journals are too specific to be sold by general retail bookstore, they can be provided by university bookstore to students who need them. Such books or journals are usually published in small number.
When I was a university students I didn't buy books from the university bookstore because there was no such bookstore in my campus. So, I could only rely on the university and faculty libraries for the books that I need. After borrowing them, I usually went to photocopy shop to duplicate certain pages of the books for my class assignment or research projects.

Bookstore ownership

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:58:00 +0000

If you plan to open a bookstore as your business, you need to know several schemes that are related to the ownership of the bookstore. You must know that ownership greatly affects how the bookshop will be managed. It also can make significant differences when it is time to pay taxes, deal with legal matters and to split or close the bookstore. Customers may not know whether your bookstore is owned by you or by a group of investors who work together as a corporation. In general, the ownership of a bookstore business can be categorized into several forms as follows:
Sole proprietorship
This is suitable for anybody who is planning to start running a bookstore with very limited capital. Home based bookstore owners usually choose sole proprietorship as the form of their bookshop. Their entrepreneurial spirit will prove whether their business will succeed or not. The bookstore will fully be controlled its owner. She or he will be responsible for trade and legal claims from book suppliers or distributors, banks, and single taxation from both the local and central government.
Partnership
If you and your friend(s) decide to start a bookstore, all of you will need to share the burden of providing or raising the initial capital. A bookstore that is run on the basis of partnership is simpler to form than corporation. However, it has less ability to raise capital from the public if partnership is chosen. Most often, owners of a partnership bookstore are liable for legal claims made by book publishers and customers
Corporation
Similar to other retail businesses, a retail bookstore firm that is based on corporation will be formally under the state law. As a legal entity, the bookstore corporation is separated from individuals who own the stocks of the business. Most often, stockholders choose professionals to run the bookstore.
Whether your new bookstore is a sole proprietorship, or corporation, it needs to be planned, run and managed well. Store location is an important factor if the bookstore is a brick and mortar one. If it is an online store, a reliable e-commerce shopping cart that is supported by a powerful webserver is a must. In addition, the online bookstore needs people with IT expertise who really know how to manage or operate the shopping cart software. All types of ownerships have their own advantages and disadvantages. You can choose any of them according to your financial and managerial capacity to realize your dream of running your bookselling business.
A part of the above types of bookstore ownerships that I mention above, there is still another scheme which you can choose to sell books to make money without really running or having a bookstore. Today, an online bookstore called the Amazon.com provides opportunities to anybody who wants to join the Amazon Associates program. Through this membership, anybody can sell books and other types of merchandise that Amazon.com sells through his or her blog or website. This can be a quick solution to those who are now thinking of making money from the comfort of his or her own home. by Charles Roring

How to start an online bookstore business

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:07:00 +0000

Starting an online bookstore is very easy to be done right now. In my previous post, I explained a little about how to sell Amazon books and other merchandise by becoming a member Amazon Associates through blogs or websites that you write. This is an affiliate marketing strategy that a lot of bloggers and web-publishers have done to make money from home. We don't need to think about where to get the books that we want to sell from many different publishers. What we need to do is writing articles that are related to our interest and put the html code of the product from Amazon from a number of widgets and Amazon Associates provide.
Online bookstore is seen as a potential way to sell books and other educational products to customers around the world. Although selling Amazon books and other merchandise is easy, beginning online store entrepreneurs often think that they can sell their own merchandise to obtain higher profit.
If this is the case, then the fastest way is to set up your own online bookstore business using web-hosting package that has Fantastico feature inside it. After buying a webhosting package one annual fee basis. You can start installing zen-cart or os-commerce shopping cart software to establish your online bookstore. It only takes less than 15 minutes to install it. However, you need more time to add contents to the online bookstore business which you have just launched. Zencart, and OS-commerce are open source shopping cart software that are used by a lot of online store owners. They are powerful because they are supported by mysql database system and php. You don't need to be an expert in php to run your online store. You only need to study how to manage your own bookstore.
If you already have got a static website, you can start selling merchandise from Amazon.com associates program. I personally use product widgets and astore. Depending on how hard you work to develop your online store, the potential amount of earnings that you can make is unlimited. Online market is huge but is also full of competition. You need to work extra harder by providing good content in your website and promote it to really attract customers. If you are persistent with your online bookstore business, I believe that one day, you will be able to make enough money from it.

How can I sell books from Amazon.com bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:58:00 +0000

So, you are planning to have your online bookstore but you don't have enough capital to start buying books from supplies. I don't know whether you have heard this news or not but you can make money by selling books that the largest online store in the world, the Amazon.com, also sells. It is not difficult to sell Amazon's books.
First you need to sign up for an account in Amazon.com as member of Amazon Associates. When you have signed up, you will get an account where you can use your email and password to enter the Associates Central webpage. On the upper part of the page there are widgets or astore link which you can click to start choosing the products that you are interested in selling. You can choose the aStore Widget or Omakase one. If you click the Omakase widget, you will sell products that are contextual to the content of your blog or website. You need to have a blog or website to sell Amazon's books or other products through Amazon Associates program. At the bottom of the Omakasi Links webpage, you will see the html code which you have to copy and paste inside your blog.
If you don't know how to set up a website. You can start a blog from blogger.com. As part of Google, blogger.com has special cooperation with Amazon.com which helps publishers or bloggers to sell Amazon products directly from the blogger's New Post webpage form. If the Amazon Associates account has been activated in your blogger's account, you can see it next to the New Post form. You can click the link, image or link + image to start selling Amazon's products. If you still do not understand what I mean, just check the Amazon's products that I promote in this post.
Also read: Starting an online bookstore as member of Amazon Associates

How much capital to start a bookstore business

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:49:00 +0000

When I began running my home based Xavier bookstore, I only spent around 65 million rupiahs. According to current exchange rate it is 7,927 US dollars. This investment has paid off and I now can make between 1,200 to 1500 US dollars a month from this small business. For European and North American countries where the cost of living is high, this amount is small but for people living in Indonesia where the cost of living is relatively between 200 and 300 US dollars a month, this amount of revenue is big.
I am now expanding the home based bookshop to online bookstore. In the beginning I used Microsoft Frontpage 2003 in combination with blogging software Wordpress. Now I used a more powerful e-commerce software called zen-cart. I gave the online bookstore a different name called toko-buku-online-sapphire.com. The capital needed for starting this online bookstore was only 42 US dollars. It is very little, isn't it? The shopping cart software is free. I only need to pay the 1 year webhosting package to establish the online bookstore. This little investment was paid off in just a few days after the online bookstore was launched.
Talking about the amount of capital needed to start a bookstore, as a matter of fact, there is no standart amount. If you use your own house as the base for your business, then you will not spend a lot of money. But if you rent a show room in a strategic place in the downtown, starting up a new bookstore can cost you tens of thousands of US dollars. Most book lovers do not really look at the physical appearance of the building of a bookstore which they enter. Their interest is whether the shop has the books which they need or not. If you can provide a long list of titles, for example, for the category of agriculture, then you will be able to attract more customers. A successful bookstore is a shop that can provide the books which their customers are looking for. So, before running a bookshop in your town, make a market research about it. by Charles Roring
Also read:
How much does it cost to start a bookstore?
How to start a bookstore business without large capital

Starting an online bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:08:00 +0000

Starting an online bookstore is similar to starting any other businesses. First, we have to know the basic concept of how a bookstore runs. Bookstore is a retail store. It provides books and other merchandise to customers. Store format of a bookshop is transformed into an online store that still offers books to wider customers. Because the initial capital for starting an online bookstore is smaller than the amount needed for starting a brick and mortar one, the price of books and other products will usually be cheaper. However, the total cost a customer has to pay may be higher especially if the distance for shipping the book is far. For instance, it is not effective to buy a notebook PC from an online store in Japan, if the customer can get a similar product at an electronic or bookshop in his town.
Software that is needed for starting an online bookstore
I have mentioned some e-commerce software which anybody can use to run an online store. My recommendation will be Zen-cart or OS commerce. There are a lot of e-commerce solution which store owners can download for free or buy to power their online business. The above shopping cart software use MySQl and PHP to process all of the bookselling transactions. I recommend them to new entrepreneurs because they are free and relatively easy to be operated. Although they are free, they are very powerful and expandable. A lot of online bookstores and other retail shops have used zen-cart and os-commerce to serve customers worldwide. The management of an online bookstore is not too different from the management of store format bookshop. From my personal experience in running Xavier bookstore, I see that it is even easier to run an online bookstore because the number of employees needed to run an online store is fewer than a retail store. We do not need bigger rooms filled with store employees in every shelves. Bookshelves needed by an online bookstore are not as many as the conventional physical bookshop format. I even do not have any workers for running my online toko-buku-online-sapphire.com. When a customer order a book, the whole process is handled automatically by the shopping cart software. Store owner or manager or also called admin staff only works in back office page to complete the transaction when the money has been transfered by the customer for the book that he or she orders.
Fantastico feature in a webhosting package
Most of the webhosting packages on the internet now provide fantastico to their potential customers. If you are serious in starting an online bookstore, you should consider of this feature. Fantastico has a number of shopping cart software that can be installed into the webhosting package that you have paid. You don't need to download zen-cart or os-commerce from their official webpages anymore. What you need to do is clicking the fantastico link and installing the shopping cart software for your new online bookstore.
Payment Gateway System and Shipping
Two important things that you have to know before fully running your bookshop are the payment gateway system and the shipping of your products to your customers. The easiest way is to apply for a merchant account in paypal.com. For the shipping cost, you need to check the companies in your country that handle the shipment of such products as books, cameras and other electronic goods that are usually sold by online stores. Your first choice is the national postal service. If you are in Europe, you can check whether DHL can support or online store by providing feature where customers can get a cost for the shipment of the books from your store to their houses.
Also read:
Starting an online bookstore as member of Amazon associate.

Online Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:47:00 +0000

Want to have your own virtual retail store?
Online bookstore powered by open source software such as the OS commerce, ZenCart can now be set up in just one or two days. The amount of capital that the owners need to establish their online bookstores is not as big as the amount needed for opening a brick and mortar store. Today, most of the brick and mortar retail stores expand their business in the World Wide Web. If we read the success story of Amazon.com, we can see that the main products which the online store offered for the first time through the internet were books. Today, these "online bookstores" sells everything from clothes to towels and from books to movies.
Online consumers are professionals and intelectuals - study their lifestyle

If we do an indepth research into the online businesses, we can see that most of the consumers who buy things from e-commerce websites are from profesionals and people who study in universities. They are called intelectuals. The buying partern of this type of consumers will be related to their lifestyle. They read books, they use various electronic products, they wear good quality shirts and dress but not the luxurious ones and they like sports. Therefore, bookstore owners or online retail store owners need to provide merchandise that this group of intelectuals really need.

How many categories of merchandise should a beginning online store owner provide?
Because the store owners do not have to spend their capital on constructing large buildings and shelves to store their merchandise, most of the money can be spent to buy or secure the products from suppliers before they are offered to online consumers. However, if the amount of capital which the beginning store-owners have is little, they should only focus on providing small number of categories in their merchandise for instance books on agriculture and animal husbandry. If the target customers are IT professionals, they can try to sell books that are related to computer and various software applications such as Microsoft office and graphic design software such as Adobe Photoshop, Sketch up. Trying to provide all categories of merchandise with limited capital, the success of running an online bookstore will be very little.
Online Bookstore POS
The availability of open source e-commerce software which is called shopping cart greatly helps small online store owners in running and managing their businesses. Zen-cart or OS commerce can handle thousands of transactions in real time without the owners or managers interventions. However, security issues related to personal information of credit card holders are still a sensitive matter. The recent credit card data breach that customers of Sony Play Station suffer raises questions among the online consumers whether online transaction is safe or not.

Also read: Online bookstore needs bookshelves, doesn't it?

Online bookstore needs bookshelves, doesn't it?

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:25:00 +0000

Online bookstore is a type of bookselling business that promotes certain titles of books on the internet through a website for customers who live in many different areas around the world. As someone who is now running an online bookstore, I can say clearly that online bookstore definitely needs bookshelves or shelves. The shelves are needed for safe placement of books instead of putting them on the floor. Because books have to be grouped into several different categories, a number of bookshelves are needed for that purpose. If the bookshop is purely run on an online basis, the arrangement or lay out may not be the same as the arrangement of bookshelves on brick and mortar shop floor. In online bookstore, the space for placing the merchandise can be curbed into, for instance, a 4 meter x 4 meter room.
The most important thing that an online bookstore owner has to prioritize is not how big a physical room is but how the website for selling his or her books is designed and promoted on the internet. He or she has to make the online bookstore famous.
Because most of the transactions of the bookshop occur automatically with the help of an e-commerce software such as ZenCart or VPASP, online shop owner does not need a lot of staff to supervise the visitors who are looking for books that they need to read on the bookshelves such as what we usually see in a brick and mortar retail store. In addition, starting an online bookstore is much easier than starting a brick and mortar bookstore.
A famous online bookstore can handle simultaneously hundreds of transaction in one time without the store owner has to type each title of books and the quantity of items bought by the book lovers into his or her POS software or cash register machine. In today's highly competitive bookselling market, brick and mortar store owners must go online if they are really serious in expanding their market share. I remember reading the phenomenal success story of Amazon.com owned by Jeff Bezos who started his business from a small garage. Now it is a major player not only in bookselling business but also in anything that can be sold online. Even in time when store owners worry about the development of e-books and electronic readers, Amazon.com continues to be the leader in online bookselling market by selling their Kindle that is able to store around 3,500 books in PDF file format and can be carried anywhere by the owner where ever he or she goes.
Also read: The bookshelves layout in a bookstore

How many bookshelves does Xavier bookstore have?

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Xavier bookstore that is based in Manokwari city has 4 long wall bookshelves, 7 one-face bookcases, 7 two-face bookshelves and three tables. All of them are made of wood. These furniture are used for running the brick and mortar bookshop format. In addition to this conventional bookselling business, xavier bookstore has operated an online bookshop to meet the increasing demand for books from book lovers in many islands of the country under the name toko-buku-online-sapphire.com. The walls of the Xavier bookstore are filled with paintings and drawings from local artists. For the operation of the online bookstore, actually, the number of bookshelves and tables are not as many as for brick and mortar bookshop.
If the earnings from online and brick and mortar bookstores are compared, the profit from brick and mortar one is much much higher. It is understandable because the online bookstore had just started early this year. In addition, the establishment of the online bookstore is not supported by an aggressive promotion to book lover communities on the web.
The operation of toko-buku-online-sapphire.com uses an open source e-commerce software called zencart. Although it has not given significant earnings, it greatly helps sell out our old stock of books. In my conclusion, independent bookstore owners need to see the possibilities for their shops to go online.

Wooden Bookshelves for Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:37:00 +0000

The following wooden bookshelf for bookstore merchandise display is a modified version of the bookcase that I had designed and shown in my previous post, Bookshelves for Bookstore. I added some shelves on both sides of the bookshelves. Because the spaces for the books are limited, only small number of books can be displayed in standing position. If the books that will be put on these shelves are small, two or three can be arranged side by side in the standing position with front covers facing the customers. If space for the aisle is too narrow, it will create what is called "bottle neck." People will not be able to walk freely along the aisles because there are other people standing between the aisles blocking their way.
Bookshelves Picture

The normal distance or space between the bookshelves is 1.5 meters. Therefore, the addition of side shelving at the bookcase must not hamper the movement of book lovers walking through the bookshelves.
The design of wooden bookshelves for bookstore is not always the same as for the library or study room. Books that are arranged on the shelves in the library do not necessarily have to be put in standing position with front covers facing the book lovers. They can be arranged in standing position with bound sides facing the readers. by Charles Roring
Also read: Wall Bookshelves for Bookstore

Bookshelves for bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Charles Roring) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:28:00 +0000

The bookshelves that I have just designed and shown in this post are for floor display. The books can be put on the shelves on standing position with front covers facing the readers. The height of this bookshelf is 1.45 meters but it can be expanded to 2.5 meters as the maximum height for people to reach the books on the top shelf. The way the books are displayed on the shelves in standing position with front covers facing the customers may not be efficient for space management but it can effectively increase the impulse buying. When the impulse buying is high, the profit or sales that a bookstore can make per square meter of floor size will also high. In retail business, impulse purchases can be increased through improvements on in-store displays, and store layouts. I have got six bookshelves with designs similar to the ones that are shown in this post. These bookshelves are simple and not difficult to be manufactured by furniture production companies.
Picture of Bookshelf Design 1

Because the books can be arranged on both sides of the shelves, the bookshelves are more stable for floor display. To ensure the stability of the shelves against the collision with customers while they were walking through the isles, the foundation is made slightly wider than the shelves.
Picture of Bookshelf Design 2

While designing this bookshelves using Google Sketchup 8, I choose wood as the material both for the posts and the shelves. The cross section of the shelves look hollow. If they cannot be manufactured in your town, you can ask local carpenter to make them using wood as the main material. The shelves can be of solid forms. As a matter of fact they have to be made of solid materials. I only want to show the contour of the shelves that are made slightly inclined to help customers read the front covers of the book easily. As a matter of fact, when the books are placed on the shelves that are upright relative to the books, the merchandise will not buckle. However, as a bookstore owner, you are free to choose any materials that you like for displaying your merchandise.There are many other variations for the design of bookshelves that can be used by bookstore managers in displaying their merchandise. I will design some more bookshelves in my later posts. by Charles Roring
Also read: Bookshelf Design