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Imported books travel cheaper, faster
Online bookstores may outrun their old-fashioned counterparts
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Online bookstores may outrun their old-fashioned counterparts.
Having a physical bookstore means more costs for rent, human resources and taxes, which often translates into higher prices ' especially for imported books. This has led to the closure and resizing of several large bookstores in the city over the past few years.
Despite the extended delivery time, online stores sometimes have cheaper alternatives. Of course, Amazon.com is an old player in this field, but bookdepository.co.uk may have the upper hand by boasting a free worldwide delivery service.
As a point of comparison, an average novel normally costs upward of Rp 100,000 (US$9.8) at bookstores, while online, the same edition can be bought for less. The difference is much more significant with fancy coffee-table or design books; a $15-$30 difference between the store and virtual price-tag is not unusual. Another plus is being able to find or pre-order difficult-to-find titles on Bookdepository.
In terms of user-friendliness, the website can be navigated with ease: genres and account details down the left-hand side, and a large search box at the top of the page. The customer service is great, too. Bookdepository offers a 'Help' section to answer FAQs as well as an email address where queries or feedback can be directed. Having small yet effective features such as this helps alleviate customer dissatisfaction and improves the shopping experience.
Bookdepository allows its customers to create an account from which they can 'save' books to their wishlist, receive notifications when new books come in stock and make a purchase. Having an account lets customers save preferred payment methods and shipping addresses, keeping the checkout process brief.
Customers have a choice of eight currencies to shop with, the usual suspects being the US dollar and British pound, as well as the Canadian and Singaporean dollars. Orders assigned a transaction code, and the buying process from payment to shipment can be tracked on the customer's personal account.
Sign up for the mailing list and you will receive updates of any competitions running on the website ' usually offering books and, occasionally, nifty little gadgets as the main prize. The newsletters also let customers know about their unique sales such as a special offer every hour for 24 hours, or a small percentage off the listed price of the books you've been eyeing for some time. For the book-obsessed, this is surely an extra perk on top of paying less.
As with any service, there are a few shortcomings. More often than not, there are little to no book reviews on Bookdepository. The customer has limited insight on a particular book and is left to decide entirely on their own (but with the vast availability of information on the Internet, customers can always work around this). In this sense, then, Bookdepository may be more suitable for shoppers who have made up their minds and are simply looking for
a vendor that offers the best value.
Another potentially irksome procedure would be the separate shipping of multiple books based on availability, even when they were ordered within the same transaction.
This could be a problem if you need a number of books all at once. All books are shipped within 48 hours of payment clearance, with shipping to Indonesia taking anywhere between three to six weeks ' a relatively worthwhile trade-off for the lower prices and doorstep delivery-convenience.
