For the love of books

While I write the first post for the blog, many topics come to my mind on what the blog should really focus on.

Personal Experiences
When the seed of the idea germinated some three years ago; our reasons for launching LeBooks.in; our efforts and struggles over the past six months.

Or Professional Insights
The current state of the Indian publishing industry; the highs and lows of entrepreneurship; our learning in the process of starting up – hoping that this will eventually encourage some people to leave the rat race and live up their dreams.

Or Simply Books & Customer Experience
New releases, authors, reviews and discussions; features that you may want on LeBooks.in; ways to help improve the overall customer experience.

Well, I guess its going to be a mix of all because in the end everything is actually inter-related.

The customer service and experience is not just front-end but rather hinges on a number of variables with one crucial factor being the back-end information and supply chain system. Just to give an idea:-

The benefit of an online store is that there is no restriction on the number of titles it can hold. The books are not kept in inventory (under certain exceptions, which I will address in some other post) but rather procured from various distributors. Like any other regular supply chain, in the book industry also it is pretty simple:

Publishers -> Distributors -> Online & Offline Retail shops.
That’s the basic business model you need to start any bookstore!!

However, as you may see, the biggest advantage of an online store can also work against it when compared to a retail store, which sells only what it stocks. Since an online bookstore does not hold any inventory and works against confirmed orders, it really really and I must stress really needs to have good tie-ups with all upstream entities in the supply chain and get accurate information on a timely basis. If we say the book is in stock and ships in 2-3 days, then this is based on the information provided to us. If it is inaccurate and the book is instead out of stock or no longer in print, then we can lose a customer!!

And that is where you set yourself apart from any other online store – how do you value your customers? Just like another statistic on the excel sheet resulting in profits for the business or rather as a friend?

Our intention is the latter and it was really great to feel the thrill and joy upon executing our first orders this week. Thank you all for the great reviews. We need your constant support to make this a huge success. All feedback, criticisms and compliments are welcome.

We hope that in the process, through a journey together, we all revel in the marvelous world of books.

–
Vikas
LeBooks.in – We too love books!!