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ooovre: Helping Local Retailers Capture the Online Market

A new Kickstarter campaign has launched for ooovre, a platform designed to help local booksellers get a better deal out of selling books online.

In the UK alone, over 30% of local bookshops have closed in the last 5 years as they struggle to sell online and compete with online retailers.

Combining the convenience of the Internet with backing and supporting your local bookshop, ooovre allows local booksellers to reach a wider audience than they may have been able to on their own.

John Bennett, Random House Novelist and Founder said, “I still get genuinely excited stepping into a bookstore. I think it comes from when I was young. Books always seemed like amazing doorways into other worlds.

“Booksellers are really important. They do much more than just sell books. They work with children, schools and community groups to promote literacy and reading.”

Recently nominated in The Bookseller’s Book Tech Company of the Year category, ooovre is a mixed online/offline e-commerce platform that allows people to buy new books online from local booksellers using ‘click and collect’. Most booksellers can have almost any book you order through ooovre in store within 24-48 hours. They can also help you find the right edition, at a good price, and they’re also a great source of recommendations if you want to buy more books.

Every bookstore will have a profile page on ooovre, but this will be no simple listing page – it will be completely customisable. Booksellers will be able to upload imagery of their store, create collections of books they love and recommend, and genuinely make it their own.

Producer, Andy Shanks said, “It’s a basic prototype that offers a matchmaking service that helps people find the books they want to buy, then puts them in touch with their local booksellers so they can order and collect the books.”

The team are all digital veterans, with experience working for start-ups, agencies and tech companies. They’ve worked together over a number of years on a range of different digital projects and believe there is a fair way to buy books online, one that works for booksellers, writers, authors and readers as well. They have also guaranteed that part of ooovre’s profits will go towards bursaries and prizes to support writers.

Currently, ooovre is a prototype, which lets people buy books from local booksellers right now. However, because it’s a prototype the functionality is limited, and they need to raise £30,000 to build a more fully-featured service with more powerful tools to help local booksellers reach larger audiences online.

To help ooovre reach its full potential, head over to their Kickstarter page. Pledges start from £5 with rewards including Digital Wallpaper, Leather Bookmarks, Tote Bags, Launch Party tickets and Limited Edition ooovre Prints. All pledges will be fulfilled by March 2016 – and the launch party is planned for April 2016.

You can also keep up to date with the latest developments on their Twitter and Facebook feeds.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL8EVr3h0-I&feature=youtu.be

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