On Demand Education Sessions

Over the last two years, the IndieCommerce team has observed and analyzed consumer e-commerce buying habits as all consumers were forced to adapt to online shopping throughout the public health crisis. In this feature talk, Phillip Davies, ABA’s Director of E-Commerce, will give attendees an e-commerce market overview and share assessments on consumer buying habits. Afterward, booksellers will meet in Buzz Groups to discuss how they can optimize what they’ve learned to continue to drive online sales.

Understanding financial benchmarks within your children’s bookstore or children’s departments can help you maximize space, optimize non-book gifts and sidelines, improve profitability, and more. This session is for children’s-only bookstores or general bookstores with a children’s department. Attendees will also learn more about ABACUS — how to participate, how to use this important tool for your business, and why it’s so important for children’s bookstores to be counted in this data.

In this session, IndieCommerce team members will discuss upcoming features and updates for websites on the current IndieCommerce 1.0 and IndieLite platforms to prepare for the 2022 Holiday shopping season. The team will also review the transition to the new IndieCommerce 2.0 platform, the timeline, and how stores can best prepare for the transition. An additional session that will discuss just IndieCommerce 2.0 is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22.

This conversation is for stores of all sizes and designed with your questions in mind. PK Sindwani, former bookseller and current ABA CFO, and Cynthia Compton, owner of 4 Kids Books & Toys (Zionsville, IN), will spend the majority of the session taking financial questions from the audience. No question is too big or too small! This interactive group discussion will take into account a variety of business models, and practical advice will be given about how to integrate what you’ve learned to assist with making sound business decisions.

During this session, ABA IndieCommerce Director Phil Davies and Marketing Manager Courtney Wallace will share tips, tricks, and best practices for creating better product photography.

A full transcription is available for this session. Please note that it is machine-generated and not reviewed for accuracy.

Batch for Books is a web-based platform that bookstores can use to manage invoices across multiple publishers and streamline the payment management process. In this session, longtime veteran of the indie bookstore community and current Program Manager for Batch for Books U.S. Nathan Halter will present what Batch for Books is, how it works, and why it is a valuable tool, and he will provide a demonstration.

A full transcription and closed captioning are available for this session. Please note that both are machine-generated and are not reviewed for accuracy.

If you are having trouble trying to figure out where to access information or finding the time to report, ABA CFO (and former bookseller) PK Sindwani presents a special ABACUS webinar to help you jump start your submission and answer any questions that may be slowing you down.

Accurate and timely bookkeeping is the foundation of a profitable business. This session will cover the fundamentals of bookkeeping, with a focus on the general ledger document, and explain how proper bookkeeping improves efficiency and, ultimately, saves time and money. In addition, attendees will get a brief overview of cash flow, income statements, and balance sheets.

Download the handouts here. Note: You need to be signed in with a bookseller account to access the handouts.

For many stores, 2020 was the most difficult business year in decades, and 2021 will present many ongoing challenges. This session will help you plan for success by focusing on a few key topics: monitoring or creating your budget, responding to changing business conditions, managing your cash flow, and monitoring important benchmarking data to track your progress and meet your yearly goals. This session will provide a template for building your annual budget. Panelists: PK Sindwani, ABA (White Plains, NY); Jennifer Almodovar, ABA (White Plains, NY)

Tom Jardim and Scott Salmon, experts in employment and labor law from the law firm Jardim, Meisner & Susser, P.C., will walk booksellers through the federal government relief and wage requirements recently passed in response to COVID-19. 

Jardim and Salmon will cover the relief for small businesses in the CARES Act such as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, the Paycheck Protection Program, increased unemployment benefits, and tax/tax credit information. Additionally, the webinar will cover wage and hour requirements in part implemented by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.