As previously mentioned, here's the revision to my business idea for a Book Service:
I've revised this idea based on the feedback I've gotten and research I've done. Margins on books are quite slim and it turns out that there are quite a few competing services. In fact there are so many competing services for After Market Books (and media), that it's quite fractured and confusing for the consumer. Enter PBAL, Personal Book Acquisition and Liquidation. I know... it's a terrible name. The concept is to be a facade over the myriad existing outlets (Half.com, Amazon, Ebay, Bookmooch, Bookcrossing and so on). One place for consumers to list a books to get rid of and to find the books they want.
The consumer creates a list of Books they Have, and a list of Books they Want.
For HAVE items, the service posts the items to all or some subset of Half.com, Amazon as a used book, Ebay, Bookmooch, BookCrossing, etc.. When a book is eventually sold or otherwise moved, the service would know to go out to the other outlets and cancel the item.
For WANT items, the service would search the same outlets or subset of outlets for each item. E.g. start internally by checking other consumer's HAVE lists, next look at Bookmooch (if the consumer has points available), then Bookcrossing, then check the lowest prices on Half, Amazon and Ebay Buy It Now Pricing (and maybe auctions that are near to closing).
Revenue Model
Well, since the space is so tight, I think it would need to be a Free Service. So, it would need to rely on a combination of 1) targeted ads (we know the consumer's geography and the genres of books they enjoy); 2) product sales (e.g. mailers, shipping labels, packing tape, digital scales, etc); 3) affiliate programs with Amazon and the other outlets and maybe other services like stamps.com and the like.
Final note... this model is extensible to other media (Music, movies, games, etc.).
0 comments:
Post a Comment