‘A way of ensuring our survival’: Kiwi booksellers band together to take on Amazon

By Jonny Mahon-Heap of

“This is a way of ensuring the survival of the independent bookseller in New Zealand,” bookstore manager Jenna Todd said.
Photo: Supplied/ Stuff – Lawrence Smith

In bookshops throughout the country, a small band of booksellers has decided to take on Amazon in their very own David v Goliath fight.

BookHub, the new site by New Zealand booksellers, seeks to gain an upper hand on the e-commerce giant.

The new online platform brings together some 1 million unique titles across New Zealand.

It is a uniquely Kiwi approach to business, especially as the website has a randomised algorithm – whichever store it throws up first, gets the sale (unless you have turned the geolocation on). Consistent with the booksellers’ anti-Amazon model, this circular model is unique and runs off a “you get this one, I’ll get the next” approach.

According to Tony Moores, spokesperson for BookHub, a Booksellers Aotearoa board member and owner of Poppies bookstores, the indie stores are in with a fighting chance.

“We didn’t have a model – we just had an idea,” Moores told Stuff. “It’s a really good deal and a really good thing if we can keep this business in New Zealand.”

Jenna Todd photographed at her book store, Time Out, on Mount Eden Road, Auckland.
Photo: Supplied/ Stuff – Lawrence Smith

They are a small group of booksellers, and they have decided to take on the giant with one mission – to keep the big business of bookselling within New Zealand.

With the now-defunct Book Depository out of action, and the likes of Fishpond having anxious wait weeks for New Zealanders for their titles to arrive, BookHub’s appeal is not only in helping small business – but the simple matter of having books arrive in days, not weeks or months.

“You buy from an inventory which is already here, and has already been paid for … there’s a much shorter delivery window time, as the books can arrive to most locations and most destinations in 2 to 3 days.”

Renee Rowland is the owner of Twizel Bookstore, who is now registered on BookHub, and said that there is so much “noise and traffic” from the major overseas retailers.

The Women’s Bookshop in Ponsonby, Auckland, a member of the new platform.
Photo: Supplied/ Stuff – The Women’s Bookshop

“How do we continue to operate in that online space when it is so competitive and it’s so hard to be seen?”

“BookHub makes the most of a really, really tricky local market in terms of the supply size, and increases convenience for customers ten-fold,” Rowland said.

For Jenna Todd, the manager of Time Out bookstore in Auckland, the cry from local booksellers for an alternative to Amazon was an existential one.

“This is a way of ensuring the survival of the independent bookseller in New Zealand,” Todd told Stuff.

TimeOut bookstore in Mt Eden, a participant in the BookHub programme.
Photo: Supplied/ Stuff – Lawrence Smith

Beyond being more friendly to the New Zealand economy, BookHub also benefits from the friendliness of local retailers.

“We’re all friends and by using that special skill that we have and creating a platform to hold the stock levels of everybody’s books together, we can target the customers that are just googling a title and buying from the first website that they see without thinking about where that book is coming from,” explained Todd.

The only country overseas that has a similar model uniting independent booksellers is Spain, and even then, BookHub is unique with its shared model.

“The stores are competitors, in a sense, but the most important thing is to keep the business in New Zealand and to make sure the customer can get the book pretty quickly,” said Moores.

BookHub is up and running now.
Photo: Supplied/ Stuff – Lawrence Smith

“And, it’s swings and roundabouts … sales that I don’t get and pass on to someone else will bounce back to me at some point.”

More than a third of New Zealanders buy their books from overseas websites, according to an independent study commissioned in 2021 by Read NZ Te Pou Muramura.

The site aims to bring those buyers back to the country, to shop locally, and to rediscover their local book stores.

“There is that great cyclical community feeling of keeping your dollar in New Zealand,” explained Todd.

BookHub hopes to keep more book sales in New Zealand, offering a local online alternative to Amazon.
Photo: Christian Wiediger / Unsplash

“And it’s also more sustainable than having one solitary book travel from the northern hemisphere to here.”

This new model does not mean that BookHub will mimic Amazon’s price-cutting efforts to sell books at their lowest – but Todd insists that the perception that books are uniquely expensive in New Zealand is incorrect.

“There is a myth that books in New Zealand are more expensive. If you do a conversion rate it’s generally quite similar to the northern hemisphere’s prices.”

“Books do travel a long way to get here – we pay 15 percent tax and that cost is included in the price of your book.

“I think if people actually compare, there is not too much of a price difference in most cases.”

And so far, there are no plans for BookHub to aggressively expand in the same way as Jeff Bezos’ gargantuan website.

“At the moment, I just hope that it helps your local bookshop to not only survive but thrive,” said Rowland.

“It’s awesome and everyone should use it.”

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

-This story originally appeared on Stuff.

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