Growing an Online Business Emad E D EL Akehal CTO The Book Depository December 2009.

Growing an Online Business

Emad E D EL AkehalCTO

The Book DepositoryDecember 2009

About The Book Depository

Generated using R. Tanck Flash tagCloud found on http://www.tag-cloud.de/


• The Book Depository is a book e-retailer founded in 2004• Simple & Unique Customer Selling Points

= We offer app 2.6 M different books ready to dispatch in 24-48 h

= All orders are delivered free worldwide (93 countries)

= Very competitive prices


• Complex supply chain involving trade relations with Publisher – Distributers – Wholesalers as well as other retailers

• One DC (distribution center) in Gloucester, fulfils over 15000 orders every day, and able to ship 50K orders daily.

• We offer over 300K titles to be printed on demand

• Unlike Amazon we are specializing in the market long tail

Big mission in a simple phrase

All books available to All

Building a mountain – Top to Bottom Approach

All Books ever printed in all languages (74M*)

All Books ever printed in English (35M*) All Books in other languages

Out of Print (32M*)In print

Copyrighted Public DomainLTTL

new

new






new

new

Ground breaking internal systems + Customer centered websites


Nielson Bookscan700k titles sold UK Market ‘07 TBD also 700k






new

new

Books digitizing andre-publishing thruDodo Press


- Re-issuing 100 – 200 titles a week

- 7 million titles in the public domain

- Plans to reissue 20,000 a year through POD

- 16,300 books have been published so far

- Free eBooks of titles produced

- German/French/Spanish titles soon






new

new

Self-PublishingEspressio.com


Books which are in our customers’ minds we want to put in their hands.

- Empower the consumer to self-publish- Easy pre-press tools to create B&W and full colour books

- Espressio will act a print broker giving the best price for the volume and quality needed.






new

new

Expansion and Global View






new

new

Comprehensive Bibliog. DataBibDib.com


- The first comprehensive bibliographic database

- Rich metadata and multimedia content

- Outside links to reviews, sources, etc.

- Reader/author/publisher content

- Create conversations/discussions around books/authors/categories

- Authors/users will be able post works online

- Creating recommendations

- Becoming a platform for eBook sales


Broker






new

new

Ground breaking internal systems + Customer centered websites

Books digitizing andre-publishing thruDodo Press

Self-PublishingEspressio.com

Comprehensive Bibliog. DataBibDib.com

Expansion and Global View

Our Brands

How are we doing?

UK 48hr title availability

How are we doing?

Sales growth over the last few years

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Year 04/05 Year 05/06 Year 06/07 Year 07/08 Year 08/09

Sales £m

Sales £m

Every year The Book Depository has returned a profit.

How are we doing?

Large cabinet full of awardsThe Direct to Consumer BooksellingCompany of the Year

How do we do it? - Customer Centric Activities

Best of class web site design


Best of class web site design

- Access to a unparalleled range of books 2.5 M

- Search and Shopping Basket – Independently measured

- Offering additional payments methods (Credit and Debit Card – Paypal – AMEX) in number of currencies ( USD – AUD – CAD - EUR – GBP)

- Fast checkout process (2 steps) without a need for registration


Engagement with communities


Giving something back

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/free


http://www.flickr.com/photos/44359002@N05/sets/72157622859930974/

A Global View

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44359002@N05/sets/72157622859930974/

A Global View

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/live

TBD Systems

Supplier sends its stock levels updates (SLU)70 Supplier – Hourly/Daily/Weekly Updates – Different Formats(EDIFACT – X12 – Tradacom – ONIX – Other Plain Text Formats)

Supplier

Obama VSSSupplier

Internal SystemsSelling channel

Selling channel

AlanOMS

BookSpacePricing Engine

MPCMarket Price Checker

SLU

SLU

Other Markets

Pan-supplier Stock Control in a Virtual Warehouse (EUMAS 18th Dec 2008)

Request

Agent

Percept

Protocol

Action* The design process itself has been supported by thePrometheus design tool

TBD Systems – Obama System Overview

TBD Systems

Virtual Stock System and Orders management System feed the pricing engine with Central Stock Levels Update (CSLU) and Orders and Availability Updates (OAU)

Supplier

Obama VSSSupplier


Selling channel

AlanOMS



SLU

SLU

Other Markets

OAUCSLU

TBD Systems

Market Prices Checker collects books prices and market status and sends to the Price Engine Market Status Updates (MSU)2 M ISBNs are checked daily across 8 different market places

Supplier

Obama VSSSupplier


Selling channel

AlanOMS



SLU

SLU

Other Markets

MPAS MPAS

MPAS

OAUCSLU

MSU

TBD Systems – Market Prices & Availability Checker

TBD Systems

Price engine generates Listing Files Updates (LFU)Each channel has different daily updates based on Geo-location – Competition level – Currency ect

Supplier

Obama VSSSupplier


Selling channel

AlanOMS



SLU

SLU

Other Markets

LFU LFU

MPAS MPAS

MPAS

OAUCSLU

MSU

TBD Systems

Customers placing their orders with selling channels.The Orders Management system collect the customers’ orders (Cos)4 collection times daily, over 12,000 orders = 20,000 Books a day

Supplier

Obama VSSSupplier


Selling channel

AlanOMS



SLU

SLU

Other Markets

LFU LFU

MPAS MPAS

MPAS

OAUCSLU

MSU

CO

COs

COs

TBD Systems

TBD Systems

OMS, consult VSS (Obama) for the best route, then sendsPurchase Orders to the suppliers. Once delivered to the warehouse they are dispatched to the customer.100 POs sent daily with 20 different formats, 10% or orders are cross ordered

Supplier

Obama VSSSupplier


Selling channel

AlanOMS



SLU

SLU

Other Markets

LFU LFU

MPAS MPAS

MPAS

OAUCSLU

MSU

CO

COs

COs

PO

PO DS

TBD Systems

There is no technology that is the best for all

Supplier

Obama VSSSupplier


Selling channel

AlanOMS



Other Markets

PHP+MySQL3-Tier Architecture

PHP+MySQLMVC based

Java

BDI Multi Agent

System

Java

AgentScape

Distributed MAS

J2EEservlets, server beansWS

We are recruiting

Visit: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/jobsOr send your CV to: [email protected]

- Diversity in technology is a good thing

- Dynamic agile development to adopt with fast growth

- Hard work is not an option (9-5 is not enough specially for owners)

- Identify the right product and the right market

- Scalable and flexible mixer of experienced and young employees

- Customer centric approach and service excellence is the best adv

- Innovation is a must to keep ahead of competitors

- Offshoring part not all for rapid growth

- Think big, act small

- Word of mouth, and social networking are great communication channels

Top Tips

Thank You

Growing an Online Business Emad E D EL Akehal CTO The Book Depository December 2009.

Documents

Transcript of Growing an Online Business Emad E D EL Akehal CTO The Book Depository December 2009.