IndieCommerce: The Latest News & Updates

The October 11 edition of IndieCommunication includes information about the ABC Best Books catalog, a new checkout stepper, one-on-ones at the regional shows, and fall eBook price promotions.

The ABC 2016 Best Books for Young Readers Catalog

Holiday shopping for kids and young adults offers a tremendous opportunity for your store. You can highlight a great selection of books right now by linking to the 2016 ABC Best Books for Young Readers catalog.

Here is a test example of the link: http://abatest.d7.indiebound.com/holiday/ABC/index.html. For your website, just replace abatest.d7.indiebound.com with your store’s website URL. (It should look something like http://www.YourStoreName.com/holiday/ABC/index.html.)

Stores can add the link in a block or as part of a menu. Questions? E-mail [email protected].

New Feature: Checkout Stepper

Checkout Stepper is a new feature that shows customers exactly where they are in the process. Each progressive stage of checkout is indicated with a darker color so customers know if they are done or need to supply additional information. The stepper is a big help in resolving customer uncertainty about incomplete shopping carts. To enable this feature on your site, contact [email protected].

IndieCommerce One-on-Ones Continue

The IndieCommerce team is conducting one-on-one sessions at regional shows this fall. Check the Fall Regional Trade Show page on BookWeb for shows that are currently accepting registration for one-on-one appointments; the page will be updated as registrations for more shows open. Current IndieCommerce members, as well as stores that are interested in learning more about joining IndieCommerce, are invited to make an appointment.

At the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Fall Conference in Baltimore Maryland, appointments will be held on Saturday, October 15, and Sunday, October 16. All one-on-one sessions will be held in Room Constellation F of the Hyatt Regency Baltimore. Register for an appointment at NAIBA today. Walk-ins are also welcome.

eBook Sales Remain Steady

Each week hundreds of customers purchase eBooks from the network of IndieCommerce websites. With no overhead, eBooks are like little digital gifts that keep on giving. ABA and Kobo encourage stores to promote “eBooks” rather than “Kobo” on their homepages, since the brand is less important than the product.

Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza offers a great example of how well the bright blue eBook button works above the fold on the store homepage:

If you’re part of the Kobo eReading program, offer your customers a $5 credit for new accounts and easy access to digital content: Grab the latest Kobo eBook button on the block configuration page at Structure -> Blocks -> Kobo eBooks Info -> Configure.

Fall eBook Price Promotions 

Stores can promote Kobo Daily Deals with a link to the dedicated page at https://store.kobobooks.com/p/deals. Find the Daily Deals banner in the Designs & Downloads section of BookWeb. A list of other promotions can be found on the Fall 2016 eBooks Promotion page. Would your customers be interested in any of these? Add the links to your homepage to find out.