Ingram to Roll Out New Programs for Indie Booksellers in 2017

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

As 2016 comes to a close, Ingram Content Group is preparing two new programs to help ABA members grow their businesses in the new year: Indie Vault and the “Tuesdays with ipage®” webinar series.

Indie Vault, which was created as a direct result of a series of focus groups with independent booksellers, designates and sets aside a select inventory of popular titles specifically for indie bookstores. The program is currently being tested regionally and will roll out nationally in early 2017.

“This is a service that Partners West provided for years, and we were so lucky and grateful to take advantage of it. Now that Ingram is planning on offering this same service through Indie Vault, we couldn’t be more pleased,” said Pam Cady, manager of the general books department at University Book Store in Seattle.

“Ingram will be setting aside stock just for indie bookstores, so that we’ll have access to it when no one else does. We’re in the testing phase with it right now, and it’s been of great service to us. Even though it seems that Ingram may be out of a hot title that we need immediately, we call our Ingram rep, who lets us know if they’ve tucked it away in ‘the vault’ so that we can get more stock. It’s as simple as that.”

Paul Hanson, who on January 1 will become co-owner of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, echoed Cady’s sentiments. “When something hits the media or the bestseller lists, the stock can be bought up by other major booksellers to such an extent that we have nothing for customers. This increases our ability to offer great customer service and get the books into our customers’ hands,” he said. “With the amount of volume we do, getting five copies would make five of our customers very happy.”

Hanson recommended that other indie booksellers check out the program once it’s available nationally. “The more successful it is, the more books they’ll set aside for independent booksellers,” he said. “We always try to anticipate ordering, but at this time of year someone’s going to come up with their top 10 list that we’re not prepared for and being able to call Ingram for the books is a huge benefit to indie bookstores.”

The “Tuesdays with ipage” webinar series aims to teach booksellers how to get the most out of ipage, Ingram’s order and account management platform, to better manage their workflow and save time. The series will cover topics such as best practices for order management, updates on the latest ipage tools, and how to reach out to readers in booksellers’ communities.

Shelley Regimbal, the general book buyer for The Duck Store, the bookstore at the University of Oregon, participated in the inaugural webinar.  “It was especially helpful to have questions answered in real time and I learned about some features that I wasn’t aware of,” said Regimbal. “We use Ingram every day, all of the time, but I’m sure there are still ways that we could be more fully utilizing it, so I think this series is a great idea.”

Booksellers can see the list of upcoming webinars and register for them here. Webcasts will also be available on demand for booksellers who cannot attend live sessions.

See last week’s issue of Bookselling This Week for details about Ingram’s Booklove 2.0 program and consolidated ordering. For more information about these or any Ingram programs, booksellers can contact an Ingram sales representative at (800) 937-8200 or [email protected]

Categories: