About Us

About Us
Abebooks is the world's largest online community of independent booksellers. With over 45 million rare, secondhand and out-of-print books, we bring buyers and sellers together through their love of literature. Abebooks allows book lovers to find that long lost title, explore related topics including book collecting, author biographies, and recommended reading, or interact with our experts.

The global reach of our bookseller network has prompted the introduction of international web sites that cater to each individual market. Abebooks is available in English (www.abebooks.com), German (www.abebooks.de) and French (abebooks.fr).

Our customers shop with peace of mind knowing transactions made through our web sites adhere to the world standard in security. All personal information is kept strictly confidential and is held with the utmost care.

Network Business Model
Abebooks works by bringing together thousands of independent bookstores from around the world and providing a range of services that are usually only available to large corporations. Our services level the playing field, allowing small independent players to compete with bookselling superstores. Buyers who visit abebooks do not see a single corporate book retailer- instead, they see a network of independent booksellers, the vast majority of which are owner-operated, small businesses.

Booksellers on abebooks upload their inventory data to our database, specifying information about each book including condition and price. (Booksellers can upload their inventory using their choice of software, or use our free bookstore management software, HomeBase 2.1, available for download off our web site.)

Finding A Book
Booklovers around the world can find virtually anything they are looking for from the combined inventories of our booksellers. And if their book is not listed, they can leave a search request (we call it a "want"), and our booksellers will scour their shelves for it.

Visitors can search by author, title, subject, or keyword to find their desired book. The search results will offer up a list of books fitting the visitor's request. Buyers can choose the copy that best fits their needs based on condition, price, and the bookstore it is available from.

Purchasing A Book
The original method: Abebooks helps book buyers and sellers find each other. So, if a buyer in New York is looking for a book and a bookseller in Vancouver, Canada has it listed on any of our web sites, they will meet over e-mail. The buyer will make the purchase straight from the bookseller. Abebooks is the service provider but does not get in the way of the transaction. The bookseller ships the book directly to the buyer from their own shelves, and receives their full listed price.

E-commerce convenience: Millions of books on abebooks are also available through a "buy now" option with our e-commerce program. For these books, we provide a high-security environment for credit card transactions through our web sites. Simply look for the e-com credit card icon beside book descriptions and follow the steps under that option. Booksellers are paid faster, orders are processed faster and abebooks handles the paperwork and credit card charges. For this program, the bookseller receives the full listed price and shipping costs. The buyer pays abebooks a nominal handling fee to cover the costs of this service.

Reseller partners: Abebooks offers a number of free and optional reseller programs to member booksellers. These programs increase bookstore exposure and augment sales while making our database of books available to more people over the Internet. Look for our books at barnesandnoble.com, Half.com, and through our international partners: Japan's Akaikutsu and Australia's BibliOz.

Technology
Our database and search engine are some of the most extensive on the Internet. Our prototype was written in Visual Foxpro; however, the system has since been converted to an Oracle database combined with Java servlets and an Alta Vista search engine. The new platform was chosen specifically for its scalability - its ability to scale up to higher volumes as needed. We anticipate continued growth, accelerating for years to come.

Customer Service
For our member booksellers, we have a 1-800 number, an International Call Back feature, telephone support, an extensive email help desk, and an online Help Wizard.

Independent booksellers list their books with abebooks because it comes down to a good business decision: Internet sales make up a significant portion of our booksellers' revenue.

Abebooks gives booksellers an opportunity to sell through our site and through our partners. And our booksellers always maintain their identity. This means that everywhere their books appear, the booksellers' name appears as well. We respect that our booksellers are the lifeblood of this business and help them keep and develop relationships with their customers.