With work complete on web site and database infrastructure, Biblio Inc. now is putting aside the tangible realm of technology and focusing on the intangibles of business strategy. The e-retailer has been defining its new strategies based on two overarching goals: improving conversion and driving new traffic.
With the technological work finished, Biblio now is in a much better position to work on developing new strategies to better conversion and traffic, says Kevin Donaldson, director of sales and marketing. Conversion is of special importance because there is not a lot of brand loyalty in the bookselling market, he contends.
“We’ve decided to work on enhancing our site search,” Donaldson says. “And we’re clarifying and refining the whole online sales process, which centers on introducing book buyers to independent booksellers and then assisting with transactions in various ways.”
Influencing these decisions is experience Biblio, No. 380 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites, has had with unexpectedly fast growth. Company sales hit $10.2 million in 2005, a 139% leap over $4.3 million in 2004, according to Internet Retailer estimates.
“This detracted from our overall plan of managed growth,” Donaldson explains. “Today we’re making very sure that we do not scale too quickly so we can focus on enhancing the online sales process as well as the approval process for adding more booksellers to our site.”
So for 2007 and beyond, Biblio is planning for growth in a more conservative fashion than it has in the last two years. “Any company can reach a critical mass at a certain point in their business,” Donaldson says. “What we have to do is make sure we don’t lose sight of our commitment to customer service and a solid, secure transaction process by taking too many chances or growing too quickly.”
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