The line between how new and used books are sold online is blurring. Amazon already sells used books along with new ones; now Abebooks, one of the biggest online marketplaces for used books, says it will expand its online platform to new books as well.
The platform expansion, to be announced this week, makes official what’s already occurring. Abebooks, with four international web sites including Abebooks.com, Abebooks.co.uk, Abebooks.de and Abebooks.fr, estimates that in the past three years, 50 independent publishers and 100 new book retailers have started listing new books on Abebooks.com, and that 10% of the books now on sale on Abebooks web sites are new.
The Victoria, B.C., Canada-based company says its research shows that most book buyers visiting Abebooks.com would also purchase new books at the site if they were available, particularly new releases and best-selling fiction. That’s a forte of Amazon.com and others, but the company doesn’t view opening up its marketplace to new books as competitive with online sellers such as Amazon. A spokeswoman notes that Abebooks already provides sellers who list books on its sites with software that enables them to sell on multiple platforms, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. “We just want our customers to be able to find any book they want on our site,” says the spokeswoman.
Abebooks.com will list new and used books together. Eventually, the company plans to offer a sorting option that will make it possible to search books by condition code, along with options for purchasing multiple copies of books from a single seller.
To the extent that new books are sold on price, it remains to be seen whether Abebooks will draw against what could be lower prices for selected titles on sites such as Amazon. As an open marketplace, Abebooks does not set prices for books in its site, leaving that to the individual sellers. The company believes that new books will come to account for one third of all books sold on Abebooks web sites within three years. “It’s going to be interesting to see how booksellers, book publishers and even self-publishers are going to price their new books,” says the spokeswoman.
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