Online bookshop service shares 50% of profits
Howard Lake | 23 November 2009 | News
Bath-based company Eclector has launched a new tool that lets charities create an online bookshop and receive 50% of the profits of sales generated via the shop.
The shops feature more than a million titles and can be customised to match the charities’ brand and style. There is no set-up or other charge to set up a bookshop.
Eclector manages the transactions, order fulfilment, customer relations and provision of all book data. Eclector’s CEO William Pryor says that “charities get paid half the gross profit on each and every sale, however and whenever they happen”.
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One of the charities launching Eclector’s service is The Ramblers. In addition to every map and guidebook relevant to walkers in the UK, their shop-front offers books on every other aspect of the charity’s activities and campaigns. Their supporters can also browse and buy every title available in the UK.
“Eclector gives us a bookshop and half the profits on every sale,” said John Wightman, Head of Marketing at the Ramblers.
“All we have to do is give our members access to this truly useful service. It’s integral to our online fundraising.”
William Pryor added: “With Eclector, not only do supporters get the book they want, but the purchase contributes five times more than certain other online book retailers.”
Indeed, books have been sold in the UK using the online affiliate marketing model since at least 1997 when Amazon.co.uk, in its former guise of Bookpages, introduced it. Amazon’s Associates scheme has subsequently contributed considerably to its global growth.
While Eclector can not match the steep discounts offered by Amazon, it is offering a much higher share of the profits on sales: the company claims that charities will receive “£2 on an average £10 book”.
Eclector will soon be adding millions of second-hand books to its offering, together with tools to enable charities to sell books via the popular social networking sites.
www.eclector.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.