IndieCommerce to Offer One-on-One Sessions at Fall Regional Trade Shows

This year, the American Booksellers Association is inviting booksellers to meet one-on-one with an IndieCommerce staff member at each of the fall regional trade shows. Current IndieCommerce subscribers as well as booksellers interested in learning more about the platform are encouraged to sign up online, but walk-ins will also be welcome.

One-on-one sessions give prospective/non-IndieCommerce users a better idea of whether IndieCommerce is a good solution for them, said IndieCommerce Manager Geetha Nathan. For stores that are already IndieCommerce members, the sessions are an opportunity to have individualized attention paid to their most pressing questions.

“One-on-one time is valuable because booksellers can come in with lots of questions prepared. When they sign up online, they can tell us ahead of time what they want to discuss, so we can go in ready to help them the best that we can,” Nathan said. “We are looking at different IndieCommerce sites every day, so we have a comparative idea of what works and what doesn’t. If they have a problem on their site, we can immediately point them to another site that is handling the issue successfully. That’s the kind of information they can’t get anywhere else.”

One-on-one sessions have been offered in the past at BookExpo America and the Winter Institute, and, most recently, at this summer’s Children’s Institute. Staff has also hosted several IndieCommerce Institutes (the next one will be held on January 27, just prior to the kickoff of Winter Institute 12); however, Nathan said, “this is the first year there will be an IndieCommerce presence at the regional shows.”

Nathan will meet with booksellers during one-on-one sessions at the shows of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), the New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA), the Pacific Northwest Independent Booksellers Association (PNBA), the Heartland Fall Forum (for the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association, MIBA and GLIBA), and the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA).

IndieCommerce Training Manager Scott Nafz is scheduled to lead one-on-one sessions at the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA) trade show and IndieCommerce Specialist Ryan Quinn will be at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) show.

ABA members can register now to meet one-on-one with Nathan at the SIBA16 Discovery Show in Savannah, Georgia. Appointments are available for either Saturday, September 17, or Sunday, September 18.

Booksellers can also register for an appointment for Wednesday, September 21, at the NEIBA Fall Conference in Providence, Rhode Island.

Registration for one-on-one sessions at future shows will open up closer to each event, said Nathan.