Bookstores Reap Benefits of Ingram’s Booklove, Consolidated Ordering

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This year, indie bookstores have taken maximum advantage of several programs and services from Ingram Content Group designed to set booksellers up for success at any time of year and help them make the most of the holiday buying season. Ingram’s Booklove 2.0 and its new consolidated ordering are just two of many year-round programs that indie booksellers have found beneficial.

Booklove 2.0 is an indie rebate program that launched in 2016. When booksellers sign up for Booklove, they are provided with a sales goal for the year based on their previous year’s sales with Ingram. Booksellers who meet their goal by the end of the year earn 0.5 percent of their net sales in credit with Ingram.

Ingram is renewing Booklove 2.0 for 2017, and the program will include titles from Ingram Publisher Services and Ingram Book Company as well as Publishers Group West, Consortium, Perseus Distribution, and Legato.

T.J. Moore, buying department administrator for Schuler Books & Music in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said the extra margin afforded by participating in the Booklove program is appreciated.

“It’s interesting to see how publishers and distributors have gone about trying to address our concerns about margins in completely different ways,” said Moore. “This is certainly a simple way to go about it. It’s clean and straightforward and doesn’t require us to jump through a bunch of hoops to take advantage of it.”

Regular e-mail updates about where the store stands in the program have been helpful in ensuring sales are on track. “It’s such a simple program. It basically says, here’s your volume: if you can meet these goals, we’re going to retroactively cut you a discount on cost of inventory. There’s not much to it,” said Moore.

Sally McPherson, co-owner of Broadway Books in Portland, Oregon, is eager to receive the store’s Booklove rebate and said it will be beneficial. “We’re excited about [the rebate], and we’re happy and appreciative because we think it’s a very cool program,” McPherson said.

Booklove has been very easy to participate in, she added, and Broadway Books is happy to see it offered again. “They made it very simple,” said McPherson. “When somebody offers me free money, I take it.”

As part of the ongoing integration of Publishers Group West, Consortium, Perseus Distribution, and Legato brands with Ingram Publisher Services, Ingram began offering consolidated ordering and rapid shipping to indie booksellers this fall.

Titles represented by those distribution brands now combine for terms and process through stores’ new Ingram Publisher Services accounts. As part of the program, orders ship from the Ingram warehouse closest to a store, and stores receive an improved discount on titles plus free freight on shipments of 15 or more units. Orders can be placed through iPage, Ingram sales reps, or point-of-sale systems, or by phone, fax, or e-mail.

Cathy Langer, director of buying for Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, Colorado, said rapid shipping with favorable terms has been absolutely crucial for their stores. “Any time our systems can be more efficient, it’s definitely beneficial because it saves us time and money. With the consolidation of shipping with all the variously incorporated publishers, we have a high level of confidence in the timing and quality of our orders,” she said.

“Because Ingram is so good at what they do, we are confident that we’re going to get what we’ve ordered in a timely manner. It makes it easier on the receiving side, too,” Langer added.

Robert Sindelar, managing partner of Third Place Books, which has locations in the greater Seattle area, said, “Being able to get all those awesome small publishers from PGW, Consortium, and Perseus at low minimums and within a couple days means we are never out of our favorite books from our friends at small presses.”

For more information about these or any Ingram programs, booksellers can contact an Ingram sales representative at (800) 937-8200 or [email protected].

Watch Bookselling This Week for an upcoming article on two new programs from Ingram aimed at helping ABA members grow their businesses: Indie Vault, a supply of in-demand titles set aside exclusively for indie bookstores, and the Tuesdays With iPage webinar series.

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