ABEBOOKS SUCCESSFULLY ENTERS UK MARKET BY FILLING A MINI
WITH RARE BOOKS AT EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL
Canadian Internet success story AbeBooks--the world's largest
online marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books-enters
the UK market with an outrageous stunt at the Edinburgh International
Book Festival.
28th August, 2002
(Victoria, BC) - AbeBooks, the world's largest online marketplace
for used, rare and out-of-print books entered the UK bookselling
market last week with the launch of AbeBooks.co.uk-a site created
specifically for UK booklovers. The new website provides UK bookbuyers
with easy access to AbeBooks' global inventory of 40 million books,
and helps UK booksellers share their books with UK bookbuyers
and wider global markets.
By entering the UK market, AbeBooks continues its international
expansion. Brent James, CEO of AbeBooks explains: "In comparison
with other antiquarian book markets world wide, the UK market
currently has the greatest potential for growth." AbeBooks
already serves Germany and France with the sites www.abebooks.de
and www.abebooks.fr
The successful UK launch event involved a red Mini-BMW that was
filled with secondhand books and parked at the Edinburgh Book
Festival. The contest was so successful (people were invited to
guess the number of books in the car by logging onto www.abebooks.co.uk
) that sales in the week following the launch event (on August
20) increased by more than 300%.
Boris Wertz, AbeBooks VP of marketing and business development
was present at the launch and noted its appeal: "People love
guessing the number of books. AbeBooks has 40 million books on
its sites, but I can tell you that's not the number in the car."
The car was loaned to AbeBooks by a local company (Eastern BMW)
and the books to fill the car were provided by booksellers from
nearby Wigtown Book Town, in Scotland.
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About AbeBooks.com
AbeBooks is the world's largest book site, listing over 35 million
books. With offices in Canada and Germany, abebooks provides independent
booksellers with business support, technological infrastructure
and international marketing, enabling booksellers of any size
to compete on an equal footing with book superstores. Through
its acquisition of Germany's JustBooks, now abebooks Europe, the
company now serves over 10,000 member booksellers worldwide via
web sites in English, German, and French. AbeBooks was launched
on the Internet in May of 1996 and offers consumers the most complete
collection of rare, used, and out-of-print books available anywhere.
Contact
Richard Davies, PR & Publicity Mgr., AbeBooks.com
Ph: 250-412-3238
rdavies@abebooks.com
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