If you are serious about selling used books, you don’t want to limit yourself by only listing on a single marketplace. On the other hand, creating individual listings on all the different marketplaces, Amazon, Ebay, Abebooks, etc., can be very time consuming. The best solution I have found is to use Inventory Management Tools which allow you to list across multiple marketplaces simultaneously. Here’s a breakdown of some of the major players in that space:
Fillz
Site: www.fillz.com
I currently use Fillz, and they seem to have become the leader of the pack when it comes to inventory management. Fillz can be a little difficult to get used to at first, and because of thie they actually may be changing their interface, but I really hope they don’t. Once you’ve gotten to know a little bit about how to navigate the service and understand how it works, it’s actually very logically set up and utilitarian. Fillz is a web-based tool, an example of what’s known as “cloud computing”. In other words, their service exists entirely online, as opposed to you having to actually download a program and install it on your machine. They support all the major marketplaces. Also, they’re now an Amazon company, which may bring with it certain advantages in the future.
Monsoon
Site: www.monsoonworks.com
I have used Monsoon in the the past, and didn’t have a great experience. I was signed up by a sales rep who didn’t fully disclose their fees. It was only after I decided to leave that they offered to change their fee structure because I was a volume seller. Unlike Fillz, you download install Monsoon, and it exists locally on your own computer, which some people prefer. More on that later.
Indaba
Site: www.goindaba.com
Indaba is essentially modeled after Monsoon. I contacted them back in 2006, but never got a reply. Back then they were going through some tech issues. Since then it looks like they’ve gotten themselves together fixed their issues.
The Art of Books
Site: www.theartofbooks.com
Just as Indaba is modeled after Monsoon, The Art of Books is modeled after Fillz. They also provide their service on the web, or in the “cloud”. I contacted them and they never got back to me. At the time they did not support the all marketplaces as I understand they do now. I’m not sure how well they can handle large volume, but I’ve heard positive reviews.
Basically, the choice seems to be between the Fillz, web-based model and the locally-installed Monsoon model. The cloud-based solutions cost less, whereas the locally installed solutions provide a greater sense of security. Web-based tools also leave you at the mercy of your connection speed. Those who take issue with the web-based model alsoe usually point to concerns about their data residing elsewhere. They worry about their data being hacked, misused, stolen or worse, lost. There is a certain amount of validity to those concerns, however any smart business owner will have their data backed up somehow, no matter what kind of tool they use.
In any case, judging by what I’ve seen, the marketplace has pretty much spoken and cloud computing seems to be the solution of choice. What do you think? Do you use an inventory management solution? Which one?