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By: Lance Christen
Is an online bookstore for you?
Have you ever considered setting-up a website to promote your bookselling?
Have you started building a website but found the task too time consuming?
If you have your own website, would you like to add the ability for your
visitors to search, browse, and securely order books?
Do you want to build your online identity and your own base of customers?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then
Chrisland.com
may be able to help you.
Who is
Chrislands.com
?
Chrislands.com
is a builder of easy to maintain online bookstores. Chrislands.com designed
their service so that a bookseller with no computer programming knowledge could
easily update and maintain a bookstore. The key strength of Chrislands built
bookstores is that Chrislands manages the technical aspects (e.g. maintaining a
secure server, processing of inventory files) of maintaining a bookstore and
provides the bookseller the flexibility to manage the business aspects (e.g.
setting shipping fees, payment policy, refund policy) of an online bookstore.
What does
Chrislands.com
provide and what computer skills do I need to operate a Chrislands built
bookstore?
Chrislands provides a total e-commerce solution for operating an online
bookstore, everything from providing assistance with domain name registration
through setting up a secure server for online order processing.
If you can upload your inventory of books to ABE.com* (or other listing
service), then you have the computer skills necessary to operate a Chrislands
built bookstore. Learning HTML or any other computer programming is not
required to operate a Chrislands built bookstore.
When did
Chrislands.com
start building bookstores?
Chrislands started building online bookstores during the summer of 2001. Since
2001 Chrislands has continually strived to add new features, improvements and
upgrade the stores it has built.
Where can pricing information about
Chrislands.com
be found?
Pricing information for Chrislands can be found on the Chrislands
Pricing Page
. The set-up for a Chrislands built bookstore is $99.99. Monthly fees range
from $9.99 a month for stores with less than 2500 books up to $29.99 a month
for stores with 30,000 books. The monthly fee for stores with more than 30,000
books is $29.99 plus an additional $5 per each increment of 10,000 books above
30,000 books.
Why should I have my own online bookstore?
If you want repeat customers and want to build your own base of customers, then
you need to provide customers an easy way to find you. A bookseller once
compared telling a customer "You can search my books at ABE.com" as being the
equivalent of a customer asking a brick and mortar bookseller for a business
card and the bookseller handing the customer a phone book and saying "I'm
listed under books."
How much customization is possible with a Chrislands built bookstore?
Operating a Chrislands built bookstore is similar to leasing a brick and mortar
(B&M) bookstore. You can choose the color and provide the images for the
online store (paint and add furnishings to a B&M store) but you can't
change the structure of the store. Items such as processing for searches,
shopping cart, secure server (heating, cooling, and plumbing in a B&M
store) can't be modified. A sample of Chrislands built bookstores can be seen
at
http://www.chrislands.com/shops/builtstores.php. Viewing a few of the listed stores will provide an idea of what can and can't
be modified.
The above paragraphs cover the "5 W's and how" of Chrislands. Listed below are
other frequently asked questions about Chrislands.
Q: If I have a bookstore, how do I get customers to order from me?
A:
Bookstores with the most success look at marketing as a continual process.
There are a number of low/no cost things you can do to market your bookstore on
a continual basis.
1. You can "market" your bookstore by including your web address in bookmarks,
business cards, flyers, email signature lines and other low cost methods. The
key is to make it easy for your customers to find your web address.
2. Another method for independent booksellers is "cross-selling". If someone
orders a book from you through ABE.com*, then in your confirmation email to the
customer you may want to recommend another book that might interest (same
author, same subject, etc...) the buyer and provide them the web address to
that book at your bookstore. For example a buyer may order a book about spices
and in your follow up email you could state
"I have a great book on food and flavors listed for sale at
http://www.tarmans.com/?page=shop/item&si=9161
or you could say
"I have many great cook books. You might want to browse my other cookbooks at
http://www.tarmans.com/?page=shop/cname&cname=cook+books
Even if the buyer doesn't buy the recommend books you have let the buyer know
how to find your bookstore. Online consumers still fear fraud. After you have
completed a sale to a buyer's satisfaction, you have earned their trust.
Customers are much more likely to buy from you a second time, because the fear
of fraud is reduced or eliminated. The key is to make it as easy as possible
for the customer to find you when they are ready to order more books.
3. Offering discount and coupons is a great incentive to get customers to order
from your bookstore. You may want to advertise a 5% "first order" discount code
on your bookstore homepage. When the customer checkouts they enter "firstorder"
in the coupon code box and are rewarded with a 5% discount at checkout.
You can then follow up with a "second order" coupon to your customer. If you
use delivery confirmation, then you know when the customer receives the book
and you can follow up with a "Delivery Confirmation" email. In the "Delivery
Confirmation" email you can tell the customer that the post office has
confirmed delivery of the book and that you hope they are happy with the
purchase. Additionally, you can add in the email that you are offering a 10%
discount (coupon code = second) if the customer places a second order from your
store.
Offering the coupon after delivery has been confirmed is the best time to offer
the coupon because that is when the customer will be most satisfied with their
purchase. The customer may still have some reservations about the purchase
until the book has been delivered.
Q: I already have a website. Can I integrate Chrislands service into my current
website.
A:
No and Yes.
No. Chrislands cannot be inserted into your current website. Chrislands is a
stand-alone system and you cannot modify the basic functioning of a Chrislands
built bookstore.
Yes. You can integrate a Chrislands built bookstore by linking together your
current website with a Chrislands built bookstore. The two URLs listed below
show how the Chrislands portion of a bookstore can be seamlessly integrated
into one web site.
http://www.AnglophileBooks.com
and
http://www.AnglophileBooks.net
AnglophileBooks already had a website she built and liked, but wanted to add a
search and ordering capability to her site. She maintains her original site
(anglophilebooks.com) but has added links to her "back end processing"
(Anglophilebooks.net) that allows her customers to search her books and
complete orders online.
Q: Is there a long-term commitment when signing up for a Chrislands built
bookstore?
A: No. Chrislands works on the equivalent of a month-to-month lease.
Q: Can I upload my inventory to a Chrislands built bookstore just like I upload
to the book listing services?
A: Yes. If you use BookRouter.com or BookTrakker, then there will be no
additional work to upload to a Chrislands built bookstore. If you use another
database program, then uploading to your bookstore will be the equivalent of
uploading to another service.
You can learn more about Chrislands at the following web pages.
Chrislands Frequently Asked Questions
You can contact Chrislands customer service with questions at
info@chrislands.com
*ABE.com is the property of the Advanced Book Exchange Inc.
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