Our renewed website

Time flies.....

It has been 6 years since I started selling new and second-hand books.

My first place to sell used books was on Amazon. Seemed easy enough: you find some books, ship them to Amazon's warehouse and wait until you have a sale. Amazon does all that for you. Until after a few months I looked at my numbers and found that Amazon was charging quite a bit for all that work and the competition was cutthroat.

Pretty quickly I ended up at bol.com . This marketplace actually did the same as Amazon but in Belgium and the Netherlands. Because I mainly sold Dutch books, the choice was quickly made. Bye Bye Amazon and bol.com here I come!

Sales on bol.com quickly increased. In no time I was a top seller on bol.com with excellent service. Books flew out the door and I received offers from other marketplaces to sell my books on their platform. Books In Belgium and Boekwinkeltjes joined and although sales were significantly lower than on bol.com, I was happy with these 2 other marketplaces.

The next step was my own webshop that started in 2018. It took some searching and the learning curve was considerable. But step by step I started to see the possibilities of my own webshop. Are the sales of such a nature that I can push bol.com aside? No, certainly not. But the sales on my own webshop are increasing every year and, together with the 2 other marketplaces, are reducing the dependency on bol.com.

Fun and socially responsible

When I started selling books online, it was primarily fun for me. But also responsible entrepreneurship was an important point.

I saw a change in mentality among people. Books didn't have to be new. Why buy new when second-hand looked as good as new?

That triggered me and I immediately understood what I had to do:

• new supply of books every week
• a very wide choice of books
• offer a premium service
• Selling quality second hand books

The success of an online store is a process of trial and error, of regularity and of knowing clearly what and where you want to go. Not being discouraged by setbacks, but continuing to work on the road.

But above all it should remain "fun" 😀