Webinar on “Making the Most of Book Data on Your Website”

IndieCommerce participating stores are invited to attend a webinar on “Making the Most of Book Data on Your Website” from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, August 2.

A bookstore website is nothing without books, and while IndieCommerce offers plenty — more than 10 million of them — this webinar will instruct attendees how to make the best use of the tools available to:

1. Sell non-book items, including maps, calendars, and journals, through your site

2. Interpret special “admin only” data about books on your website, such as the price source, Ingram desire score, and Family ID

3. Get the most out of tools such as local store inventory, not for sale, store pricing, and more

4. Adjust the search algorithm to highlight books and products more relevant to your store

5. Enable and disable partner content from NPR and LitHub

6. Enable and disable the sale of e-books and digital audiobooks through your site                      

All IndieCommerce participating stores are invited to attend the webinar (IndieLite does not offer the features that will be covered), which will be hosted by ABA’s Matt Supko. Booksellers can register for the webinar here.

IndieCommerce members can visit the IndieCommerce Webinar Center and the IndieLite Webinar Center at any time to catch up on the 2018 IndieCommerce webinar series..

New Updated Themes For Your IndieCommerce Website

Are you looking to jazz up your IndieCommerce website? How about trying out one of these newly updated responsive & mobile friendly themes. Here are four sites for you to browse that are employing the new themes:
 

icsample12.d7.indiebound.com - Best Responsive

icsample15.d7.indiebound.com - Corporate Clean

icsample18.d7.indiebound.com - Responsive Green

icsample19.d7.indiebound.com - Corolla

The theme updates will not apply automatically to sites that use a customized version. Please contact [email protected] if your stores would like to incorporate these upgrades into your customized theme.

Questions? Comments? Drop us an email at [email protected]

Are You Sending Marketing Texts?

If you send marketing text messages to your customers on a regular basis or have tried it in the past, I would like to hear about your experience with texting as a marketing tool. Drop me an email at [email protected] and let me know how this worked out for you. I’ve heard rumors about bookstores using text marketing, but have yet to see specific examples. I’m curious to hear about your experience or if you know of stores that have been doing this, let me know. Many thanks.

ABA Partnership With Eventbrite Offers Booksellers Discounted Event Ticket Management

ABA has established a new partnership with Eventbrite, a sophisticated event technology service that allows users to manage ticket sales for events.

As part of the new partnership agreement with Eventbrite, ABA members will have access to a substantial Eventbrite discount and 24/7 customer support via e-mail and phone. ABA members will also receive a one-hour onboarding session with an Eventbrite representative.

Eventbrite allows event-holders to set up an event page in minutes, offer multiple ticket options, and learn more about their ticket-buying community with customized questions. In addition, event-goers can purchase tickets directly on stores’ websites and social media pages.

Booksellers who have an existing account with Eventbrite can easily migrate to the new members-only program to take advantage of lower rates and enhanced customer support and training.

To get started, ABA member booksellers should fill out the online form here. Once the form has been submitted, Eventbrite’s Blake Ballardo will be in contact with more details.

Questions about this new partnership, which is available to all ABA member stores, should be directed to Director of IndieCommerce Phil Davies. IndieCommerce stores can contact [email protected] to learn more about integrating Eventbrite with their IndieCommerce sites.

ABA offers a number of members-only affinity partnerships with vendors that offer discounted products, services, and business opportunities. Learn more on BookWeb.org.

For past editions of IndieCommunication, visit this page.