abebooks.com

Abebooks is a private company based in Victoria, British Columbia, with offices in Germany and Spain.

In 1995, Keith Waters, then a government web programmer, and his wife Cathy were running a used bookstore in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Cathy often spoke of how difficult it was to find certain out-of-print titles for her customers. She knew the books were available in bookstores somewhere but didn't know how to find them.

Keith came up with a solution, one that combined books, databases and the Internet. They sought the help of Rick Pura, a senior programmer and database administrator, and together they came up with the "Advanced Book Exchange", a collective of independent booksellers united by the Internet through a massive searchable database.

Abebooks.com was launched in 1996 with four bookshops and quickly found immediate success by providing booksellers with an affordable means of selling to a worldwide market. Today, over twelve thousand, five hundred booksellers list over 60 million titles on Abebooks. The Abebooks team has grown to 100 people working hard to pursue new customers and develop new markets.

Abebooks.com now sells over 20,000 books a day and has become the world's leading source for new, used, rare, and out-of-print books.

Company name: Abebooks

Website: www.abebooks.com

Your company / website vision statement / goal:

We intend to be the world’s favorite and most successful marketplace for new, used, rare, and out-of-print books on the Internet.

It is our mission to be recognized as the best online connection between book buyers and book sellers.

We will achieve this by delivering superior services, continually expanding our marketplace, and offering competitive pricing and the largest selection to our book buying and book selling community.

What you sell / services you offer (brief description of your company):

Abebooks is the world's largest online marketplace for books.

Abebooks makes it simple and safe to find and buy-or list and sell-new, used, rare, and out-of-print books online. Book buyers love the variety of over 60 million books offered by more than 12,500 booksellers. This great selection delivers value for all: readers find bestsellers, collectors find rare books, students find textbooks, and treasure hunters find books they've been seeking forever.

Booksellers love Abebooks for providing the tools to help them succeed online. Abebooks offers a range of services including dedicated support, HomeBase inventory management software, options for selling via strategic partners (Amazon, Barnes & Noble), and four international sites to reach global markets (Abebooks.com, Abebooks.co.uk, Abebooks.de, Abebooks.fr).

By creating a secure and easy-to-search database and maintaining high standards, Abebooks has established a dynamic online marketplace for books, and a community that booklovers return to, again and again.

Abebooks is a private company based in Victoria, BC Canada, with European offices in Düsseldorf, Germany and Oviedo, Spain. Abebooks.com was named one of the top e-business sites by the United Nations at the World Summit Awards in Geneva, 2003. As a company, Abebooks is changing how books are found, sold, and shared with the world.

Have you always wanted to run your own business? What were some of your previous jobs / companies?

Hannes Blum President and Chief Executive Officer, Abebooks:
After working in strategy consulting for the Boston Consulting Group for three years, Hannes was one of the founders of JustBooks, the German company that Abebooks acquired in 2001.

At JustBooks, Hannes acted as managing director overlooking business in the German, UK and French market with a focus on Finance, HR and Corporate Development. He holds a Masters degree from the Technical University Karlsruhe, where he graduated with honors in an integrated study of Business Administration and Engineering.

Have you got any qualifications? Please tell us about yourself academically?

Hannes holds a Masters degree from the Technical University Karlsruhe, where he graduated with honors in an integrated study of Business Administration and Engineering.

How / when did the idea of your website / company come about?

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