How To Sell Old Books Online


Booksellers who have been in the business for a long time know how Kindles, eBooks and so on have affected their business. The bookstores that at one point were filled with life are now empty.

This shift has brought down the spirits of many booksellers, and most booksellers have been trying to take their business online.

And in case you are a bookseller or a book collector hoping to take their business online and make some money, you are in for a treat as in this guide, and we will help you kick start your new and old online book-selling business.

How to sell old books online

There are a lot of different categories of books, and you can categorise the books into other genres and start an eCommerce business with every kind of genre.

While there are multiple genres like Biographies, Self Help, Religion, Comics, Fitness, Health and so on, Romance and Crime are the most popular genres.

Hence, if you are hoping to take your book business online, selling old books, aka pre-loved books, as many shoppers online prefer getting their hands on cheap old books.

Moving on, let us learn how you can sell old books online.

Step 1: Prepare your books for sale

When you pick what kinds of books you will be selling online, start prepping your books for sale. Make sure you use a white or a minimal background to take high-resolution images of the books that will depict the condition of the books.

Also, ensure you have a killer product description, as a good product description can make or break your eCommerce business.

Here are a couple of things that you can include in your product description;

  • Synopsis
  • Author credential and publication
  • Dimensions and weight
  • Format

One thing that you must remember is that a good product description will help you in improving your search engine rankings, too (SEO).

Step 2: Create an online store

You could either sell your old books online via various eCommerce platforms like Amazon, Fynd Marketplace, Etsy, Olx, eBay and so on, or you could build your eCommerce website in less than 30 minutes using Fynd Platform.

With Fynd Platform, all your eCommerce business-related needs get taken care of at a much more reasonable rate.

A website of your own will help you gain the trust of your potential customers and make you look somewhat professional.

Step 3: Market your pre-loved bookstore

Whether a small business or a corporate giant, marketing the business right is imperative. In fact, a study found that more than 45 per cent of the booksellers in India have moved online ever since the pandemic and have a solid social media presence.

You can reach a much wider audience through an excellent social media presence. With a solid social media presence, you can:

  • Maintain a regular store inventory, and update your customers about new releases and the latest finds.
  • Share customer testimonials, and repost stories and reviews to add to the credibility of your online store.
  • Sharing tips, tricks, hacks and ideas for an enhanced reading experience with your customers.
  • Hosting online meet-ups with up-and-coming authors and more.

Keeping in touch with your customers also helps get repeat sales, and in our opinion, there is nothing better than an active social media account.

Step 4: Packaging and shipping

Packaging of the product is often overlooked but plays a huge role in affecting your sales. You can either go for an essential brown box packing or go overboard with customised packing boxes and add a note to connect with your clients.

And when you opt for Fynd Platform, your shipping gets taken care of, as Fynd Platform has tie-ups with multiple shipping agencies.

While these are a couple of steps you need to adhere to about selling old books online, let us also look at some tips and tricks for selling old books online.

Tips for selling old books online

A couple of things you need to take into consideration when it comes to selling old books online are:

Tip 1: Be upfront about the condition of your books

Make sure that you are representing the most accurate condition of your books. The product photographs and description should describe everything there is to know about the book that thy are getting their hands on.

Tip 2: Take utmost care while shipping the old books

While selling an old book, you must ake sure that you use the right kind of materials to pack the book to prevent it from any kind of damage.

Make sure that you are using a material that is water-proof and the cover has tracking numbers, shipping labels and so on to make it easier to communicate with the shipping company.

Tip 3: Set a goal

When it comes to selling anything online, it might sound very appealing to go all-crazy and buy more vintage or old books but try keeping it at a low. Before going all in, make a budget and assess your accounts so that you have an idea about your purchase, sales and so on.

With that, we have now come to an end to our guide on how to sell old books online. While setting up your very own eCommerce website might sound a bit too intimidating and expensive, with platforms like Fynd Platform, it becomes a lot easier and faster. We hope our guide helps you in running a successful old book selling business.


Sahil Jagga

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