Biblio.com closes the books on record August sales
New and improved forms of marketing helped Biblio.com achieve record textbook sales in August. The company is also beginning to grow its niche in the United Kingdom.
Though the company wouldn’t break out specifics, CEO Brendan J. Sherar says Biblio’s year-over-year textbook sales grew by about 100%. The online retailer of used, rare, and out-of-print books credits a mixture of more search engine marketing, along with affiliate and e-mail marketing, with producing more textbook sales.
In July, Biblio, No. 399 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, launched its first e-mail newsletter to a double opt-in list of 10,000 names. Working with Intrapromote LLC, a Stow, OH, search engine marketing firm, Biblio.com also achieved better pay per click and natural search results. “We built up the textbook results to where we were consistently number five on Google pages,” says Sherar. “We also spent about 10 times more on paid search.”
Biblio is also working to expand its business base in the United Kingdom. In July 2006, Biblio took over the e-commerce operations of Biblion Ltd., a British independent books retailer. Under the arrangement, Biblion concentrates on branding while Biblio operates most e-commerce programs. In the 15 months since the arrangement began, Biblio has taken a dormant site and built up the business to an inventory of 500 booksellers and an inventory of five million books, Sherar says.
The latest upgrade to Biblion.com is giving booksellers in the United Kingdom the option of direct deposit into a local bank account. “Biblion.com has been a challenge, but it also opens a window of opportunity in international markets,” Sherar says.
Biblio, which carries an inventory of about 50 million titles from a network of 5,500 sellers, expects sales to grow by about 75% in 2007, Sherar adds.
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